Design considerations for long-term remote photovoltaic-based power supply using non-planar photovoltaic surfaces

This paper presents fundamental design issues for a photovoltaic (PV) based, maintenance-free, highly available power supply for remote unattended loads using non-planar (curved) PV modules. An important application is for powering the sensors, detectors, and communications devices used for long-term remote monitoring for homeland security. Non-planar PV collection surfaces offer advantages over flat plate PV modules including orientation insensitivity and increased energy harvest; both are significant advantageous in reducing the deployment cost and size of the power supply for sensor systems. The system-oriented design described in this paper uses a combination of energy storage, non-planar PV surfaces, power electronics circuits, and control algorithms. The results show that non-flat PV modules increases energy availability compare to flat modules while minimizing the storage system size and sensor footprint. The proposed procedure can be used to design systems for a wide range of power requirements and installation locations.