In today’s world where the alarming rate at which the depletion of our non-renewable resources –mainly petrol and diesel has sent the world into a tizzy Sharp Corporation’s innovative stand alone photovoltaic system that was exhibited in the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) is a praiseworthy endeavour towards harnessing the Sun’s energy to meet our ever increasing demand for power.

THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

This system has the following two advantages:

Firstly it will work very well in regions with ambient temperatures as it uses Sharp’s thin-film Si solar cells connected to a Li-ion battery. With every 1°C increase in the temperature the reduction in the output of crystalline Si solar cell is 0.5% whereas the output of a thin-film Si solar cell is lowered by only 0.25% under the same conditions.

Secondly this system will be very useful in providing electricity to the regions which lack electricity distribution infrastructure as this system works entirely on solar energy. While producing electricity using sun’s heat during the daytime it stores the extra energy produced that can be used during the night.

Sharp plans to make this system available in the market at affordable cost by 2010 and help the over one billion lives that live in off-grid areas energize their lives in a pollution free way.

via source