1992 PVUSA progress report

Photovoltaics for Utility Scale Applications (PVUSA) is a national public-private partnership that is assessing and demonstrating the viability of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) electric generating systems. This report updates the progress of the PVUSA project, reviews the status and performance of the various PV installations during 1992, and summarizes key accomplishments and conclusions from work to date. Fall PV module costs and rising environmental pressures could make PV a significant source of large-scale power within the next decade. However, utility acceptance of this technology requires knowledge of PV operational characteristics in a utility system and confidence in predicting PV performance, reliability, and economics. PVUSA consists of two types of demonstrations: Emerging Module Technologies (EMTs), which are unproven but promising state-of-the-art PV technologies in 20-kW (nominal) arrays; and Utility Scale (US) systems, which represent more mature PV technologies in 200- to 500-kW (nominal) turnkey systems