Photovoltaic Technology and the Solar Atlas

PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS AT USP&E


Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a Solar Power technology that uses Solar Photvoltaics system or Solar cell to provide electricity for human activities. Photovoltaics is also the field of study relating to this technology.

    
Solar Atlas

  

      Solar cells produce Direct current electricity from the sun’s rays, which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery. Many Pocket calculator incorporate a solar cell.

    When more power is required than a single cell can deliver, cells are generally grouped together to form “PV modules” that may in turn be arranged in “solar arrays” which are sometimes ambiguously referred to as Solar Panels. Such solar arrays have been used to power orbiting Satellites and other spacecraft and in remote areas as a source of power for applications such as roadside emergency telephones, Remote sensing, and cathodic protection  of Pipe lines . The continual decline of manufacturing costs (dropping at 3 to 5% a year in recent years) is expanding the range of cost-effective uses including road signs, home power generation and even grid-connected electricity generation.