Photovoltaic Power System Design for Telecommunications

Since its inception in the 1950's photovoltaic (pv) power has been consistently applied in the telecommunications industry first as a convenient power source for satellites and recently for remote terrestrial sites. The size of economically and technically feasible systems has increased from tens of watts in the early 1970's to today's largest commercial telecommunications systems of up to 1 kW continuous power. This paper illustrates specific examples of telecommunication power system design solutions in systems supplied by BP Solar Systems. PV module construction techniques and array design methods are examined with improvements in collected insolation and other environmental data. Battery sizing, charge control, protection and power system interfacing are highlighted, along with aspects of civil/structural design. The paper concludes that reliability will be the most important parameter in further acceptance of photovoltaic power for telecommunications.