A solar Pacific

Direct generation of electricity from the sun has excited scientists for about a century, but has been a practical, almost household, technique only since 1974.

We owe the technology to the Americans, and the space race, for it was the Bell Telephone Laboratories which, in 1941, first developed the silicon cell that turned sunshine into electricity in one step. Twelve years later that laboratory

experiment was a practical de vice; the need to power space satellites gave the money and the impetus for the research, Twenty more years of work, and the world had a practical solar module within the reach of average buyers, Already photo-voltaic cells,as engineers call solar power units, are all around us...on calcula tors, wrist watches, yachts, houses,farms, and even cars, although these latter units are

still very experimental. But, already, units have been linked to generate several megawatts of power.

With the sun right overhead, in a clear sky, about one kilo watt of energy falls on every square metre of exposed ground. Present-day photo-vol taic cells can convert this into about 100 watts of electricity.

Solarex Pty Ltd., of Regents Park, NSW, is Australia’s oldest and largest company in this field, and, backed by Standard Oil Company of Indiana, has developed a great many applications for solar cells. Mark Fleming, one of their engineers,

says modem technology has made the cells ultra-reliable, strong, and durable. ’They need almost no main tenance,” he says. ”At most, in harsh environments, they will need occasional scrubbing with soapy water to clean their toughened glass covering. To prevent over-charging it is bet ter to connect the batteries which allow solar energy to be used even at night through a voltage regulator and, of course, the storage batteries need periodic checking ... but that’s about all. It’s very simple, and it’s financially viable, parti cularly where conventional energy is expensive, as it is in the Pacific. ’’Anticipated life of the solar modules is well in excess of 20 years. Battery life can range from five to 15 years, depen ding upon environment and use,” he said. ’’The modules are protected against things like hail storms and our Solarex units have withstood winds over 160 km per hour. ”How expensive are they? It depends on many factors, but payback periods can be as short as five years,” he said.

For the Pacific, troubled by great distances and high freight costs, or infrequent service to small islands, solar modules can be a godsend, dramatically im proving the life-style of people whose alternatives are either no power, or power at prohibitive cost. ”It means they do not have to stop activity at night,” says Mr Fleming. ’’They can have power for their radios, hi-fi systems, video sets, and water pumps... all without any effort beyond the initial installation. ’’Solarex even has a solar powered refrigerator, with 127 mm insulation and a top-open ing door, especially designed to use minimum energy and keep food in good condition in the most remote and difficult condi tions. So we can even make the hot sun cool your beer. ’’We’ve been at this since 1977,” said Mr Fleming. ’’The knowledge and the equipment are now available to open the way to a whole new way of life for people everywhere in the Pacific.”