TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT

Overview
Technical core
	PV Array
	Electrolyser
	Inverter
	Hydrogen
	Fuel Cell
	Matching
Building Integration
Economics
Environment
Risk Assessment
Conclusions
The Team
Links
References

LOG: week

PV - Desk top study

The purpose of the desk-top study was to thoroughly examine all aspects of domestic PV deployment, and to bring the group up-to-date with the latest developments and technology concerning PV. By doing this we could find the best solution on what type of PV to use, how to use it and how it behaves under different irradiances (i.e. an examination of the PV voltage/current characteristics).

PV is not a particularly new technology, but it is only recently that it has become a serious

Polychrystalline PV panels at Hunterston nuclear power station visitor centre

contender in the world renewables market. There are now many companies that manufacture PV and as such the increased competition in the market has led to reduced prices. The high efficiencies usually only associated with expensive space program-type PV modules are also now becoming available to the domestic customer (although at expense).

The use of PV to power domestic appliances is also not a new concept. In many remote locations (especially grid-remote locations), the use of PV with battery or diesel backup is commonplace (especially in sunny climates). As such, much information exists about domestic PV integration. The literature and papers we used can be found in the links and references section.

Click here to see our appraisal and final choice of PV module compositions.

On to the next section