Photovoltaic panel equipment

A different approach is to reconsider the airship as a means of air travel. A first approach to this is considering an airship for high-altitude cruising (or as a stratospheric platform) powered by photovoltaic panels and using a reversible fuel cell system to store surplus solar power and use it when the sim is not visible. In this way, carrying possibly heavy batteries may be avoided. The envisaged relative shares of direct use of solar power, of elec-trolyser operation and of fuel cell power production are shown in Fig. 4.12. So far, testing of the equipment sketched in Fig. 4.12 has been performed on a 1-kW scale in the laboratory and in simulated airship conditions. 

An example of a solar-driven MD unit operating with untreated seawater was installed in Aqaba (Jordan) in 2006 (Banat et al., 2006). The plant is equipped with flat plane collectors, photovoltaic panels, spiral air gap MD modules, and a data acquisition system. The estimated cost of potable water produced by this unit was 18 m. It decreases with increasing the membrane and plant lifetime. 

A small but growing photovoltaic industry now exists with worldwide sales between 300 million and 400 million. The United States and Japan account for 75% of worldwide sales, but European firms are increasingly active, with over 17% of the market [9]. Panel prices are about 5 per peak watt. With this capital cost and today s attendant equipment costs, electric power can be generated for between 30 and 40 cents per kilowatt-hour. 

Figure 7.5a, for example, illustrates the most direct implementation of the Combined PV-electrolysis configuratiOTi. Commercially available photovoltaic (PV) panels are coupled with separate commercial electrolyzer units, such as alkaline or PEM electrolyzers and appropriate power-conditioning equipment is utilized to load-match the processes. This is the clear path to near-term renewable solar hydrogen, but it is by no means inexpensive. Based on recent cost studies from the NREL, hydrogen production cost would exceed 10/kg for PV electricity cost at... 

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