In recent years, the siting problem of a large capacity, concentrated power station, especially of nuclear power plant has become serious. Under these circumstances, a new concept has been proposed such that a energy resource must be dispersed in a manner to meet its demand of each area. The concept will change the fundamental constitution of energy system and give a great influence to city planning itself of the area as well.
A photovoltaic power generation system can be recommended as a leading member for the dispersed power system because of its nature, e.g., simple system, clean energy, easy handling, maintenance free, etc. It cannot be forgotten for the urban construction of the future.
The author explains about a present status and an activity of photovoltaic power generation in accordance with such viewpoint. Further contents are the statistics of solar cell production and its cost, and the technology flow regarding cell production processes and applications, future aspect on conversion efficiency improvement of various kinds of solar cells, a principle system configuration diagram, system classification, etc. Trends in the commercialization toward the introduction to a future city and problems on electric power network at the introduction are also mentioned.
