Photovoltaic Solar Energy: Sizing and Maintenance of Off-Grid Systems

Billions of people around the world continue to face problems accessing electricity, primarily in rural areas of developing countries. The needs expressed by these populations primarily involve small amounts of energy for lighting, water pumping, education, culture, health, agriculture, and crafts. Economic analyses by electric utilities show that they have no incentive to provide power distribution in areas where investment and production costs are high, for a market where consumers are poor, scattered, and have low overall energy demand. When environmental and sustainable development issues intersect with energy concerns, solar energy becomes a way out; it serves as a bridge for countless desperate populations. Thus, in areas where energy is scarce, the imperative is to manage as efficiently as possible the electricity that has been successfully generated artificially; this is the purpose of this book on the design and maintenance of solar photovoltaic systems.