Solar PV For Remote Locations

There are amongst us hearty souls who live rough in the wilderness and profess to like the quiet, the serenity, freedom from phones ringing and horns honking and nice warm showers. They may have meant it, but their resolve may, soon, be tested. Solar power is making inroads to the most remote locations, and, while it may be some time before the back of beyond finds itself with twenty four hours of television programming, there are many ways that PV, or solar power technology may be offering its advantages to their, so to speak, neighborhood.

Canada, for example, has large areas that are sparsely populated and all but inaccessible. Some people live one hundred kilometers or more from the nearest power line. It is cost-prohibitive to install and maintain electrical services at such great distances. PV (photovoltaic, better known as solar) power is making inroads into this solitude.

Telecommunications are becoming much more accessible because of solar power.

Repeater stations are what their name implies. They send signals, as it were, from one remote station to the next, to string out communications links over wide areas. They are usually set on high mountain ridges for the best reception. They are incredibly expensive to build and maintain. This is a major market for PV cells. From March to October PV energy supplies the electricity and charges the batteries that supply the power for the colder, darker months.

The Canadian Coast Guard operates approximately 5500 lighted navigational aides, or buoys, up and down their extensive coastline. A PV module and a rechargeable battery are used. Other coastline countries are following suit.

Near the Arctic Circle, there is an abundance of sunlight during the summer months, and cooling a house is quite difficult. Large attic fans are used, but powering them with a generator is expensive, loud, and polluting. Now, many of the fans are wired to a PV array (a bank of solar panels) and the houses are cooled without the old problems.

Water pumps powered with PV have been used in tropical and desert locations for quite a few years. Now cattle will soon have PV powered water pumps to fill their troughs.

Now everyone can benefit from a remote PV application. For those who live in a temperate climate and like to string Christmas lights around their yard, a small PV pod can absorb light during the day and power the lights at night without extension cords and humungous electric bills.

So to the intrepid souls who like to go for the larger and more dramatic Christmas displays, we advise them that they should probably start stringing lights around July.