PV systems to power isolated regions
Conventional diesel generators have the drawback that they cannot really distribute power efficiently to a wide range of isolated areas or remote islands. Power demand may often exceed the capabilities of these diesel generators to supply, resulting in power outages and shortages. This project sought to establish a grid control PV system that would overcome these barriers, aiming to achieve improvements as far as regulation of power supply, availability, frequency and voltage were concerned, making for a far more extensive and effective power supply network. In addition, they focused on reducing air and noise pollution associated with standard diesel generators. A crucial element of this project is the CEBS (Central Energy Buffer System) that integrates two principle tasks to its operations. One is to modulate and store all excess energy generated by the networked PV systems of the island, ensuring that excess energy coming into the GMC from its various PV systems, is not lost and is capable of meeting the energy demand even in peak periods. The second is to eventually have the CEBS replace the diesel generators completely, allowing for the diesel generation of power to be used only in extra-ordinary situations. The entire operation of this project is to be implemented in stages, the final stage (total PV generation of power) happening only when the island has enough stand-alone PV systems to contribute effectively to the GMC. The project will be brought to fruition by the industrial partners TOTAL ENERGIE (France) and ANIT (Italy). Currently, TOTAL ENERGIE has three projects under way in Guadeloupe, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. Although the project boasts some innovative and cost effective methods, the drawbacks for introducing PV systems for regions where the population levels exceed 2000 people do not, as yet, make it worthwhile. Data collected from Greek island communities show that the overall costs are higher for PV systems than conventional power generators for these communities. However, the system has great generated interest for smaller, isolated communities or developing regions within Third world countries, particularly, where a hybrid power grid can be used instead, which proves to be more advantageous economically and environmentally.
