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Figure 8.7. Losses in a typical photovoltaic-powered water pumping system (Used
with permission of Halcrow & Partners, 1981).

8.7 CONSUMER PRODUCTS FOR INDOOR USE
The consumer product market is already very large, and growing rapidly. It is
currently dominated by Japanese manufacturers, producing a wide range of watches,
calculators and small toys powered by low cost amorphous silicon solar cells. There
is also an increasing market in larger products, such as garden lights, and torches.

Figures quoted for the generating capacity of photovoltaics for consumer products
2
may be grossly overrated, since they assume light intensities of 1 kW/m . However,
the cells are designed for use indoors and do not give a fraction of this output, even if
outdoors, because of resistive losses. For instance, in 2002, figures indicate that

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