Solar photovoltaic systems for rural communications

By their very nature, rural communications systems require a large number of pieces of equipment operating in distributed locations, often in remote areas. Traditional forms of generation are ill equipped to provide small amounts of power in isolated locations. Solar electric photovoltaic (PV) systems, by contrast, are ideally suited to this set up. They are modular so can be easily configured to the output levels available. The authors look at the technology of a photovoltaic generation which usually consists of three basic elements: photovoltaic array (one or more solar modules); battery storage system; and control unit