Solar cells and photovoltaic power generation systems have been gradually applied to industry, agriculture, science and technology, national defense and people's daily life. It is expected that by the middle of the 21st century, solar photovoltaic power generation will become one of the main forms of power generation and occupy a certain proportion in the renewable energy structure. The specific applications of solar photovoltaic power generation are mainly in the following aspects.
(1) Applications in the field of communications: including solar unmanned microwave relay stations, optical cable communication systems and maintenance stations, mobile communication base stations, broadcasting, communication, wireless paging power supply systems, satellite communication and satellite TV receiving systems, rural program-controlled telephones, carrier telephone photovoltaic systems, small communication machines, etc.
(2) Applications in the fields of highways, railways, and shipping: such as railway and highway signal systems, railway signal lights, traffic warning lights, sign lights, signal lights, highway solar street lights,
solar road stud lights, high-altitude obstacle lights, highway monitoring systems, highway and railway wireless telephone booths, unmanned road maintenance power supply, beacon light towers and beacon light power supplies, etc.
(3) Application in the fields of petroleum, ocean, and meteorology, solar power supply systems for cathodic protection of oil wells and reservoir gates, life and emergency power supply for oil well platforms, marine detection equipment, power supply for seawater desalination equipment, power supply systems for meteorological and hydrological observation equipment observation stations, etc.
(4) Application in rural and remote areas without electricity; solar off-grid photovoltaic power generation systems and small-scale Fengguang complementary power generation systems are used as power supply systems for villages, schools, hospitals, restaurants, communities, shops, etc. in plateaus, islands, pastoral areas, border outposts, etc. to solve the electricity problems of people's daily life. Solar photovoltaic water pumps are used to solve the electricity problems of deep well drinking and farmland irrigation in areas without electricity. In addition, there are applications such as solar sprayers, solar electric fences, and solar black light insect killers.
(5) Application of solar photovoltaic lighting: Solar photovoltaic lighting includes solar street lights, garden lights, lawn lights, solar landscape lighting, solar road signs, signal indicators, advertising light box lighting, etc., as well as household lighting fixtures and portable lights, camping lights, mountain climbing lights, fishing lights, rubber tapping lights, energy-saving lamps, flashlights, etc.
(6) Application of large-scale ground photovoltaic power generation systems (power stations): Large-scale photovoltaic power generation systems (power stations) are mainly used in central and western my country with good light resources and a large amount of non-agricultural land.
(7) Application of distributed photovoltaic power generation and photovoltaic building integrated power generation systems (BIPV): Use industrial and commercial roofs, public facility roofs and residential roofs to install distributed photovoltaic power generation systems, and use solar photovoltaic modules instead of building materials as roofs and facades of buildings, so that all types of buildings can realize photovoltaic power generation systems and power grid grid-connected operation, mainly for self-generation and self-use, and the surplus power is sent to the grid. This will be the main form and development direction of photovoltaic power generation applications at present and in the future.
(8) Application of solar electronic products and toys: Since solar energy is available everywhere and is very convenient to use, some small electronic products and electronic toys that consume very little electricity are organically combined with solar cells to form solar products. These include solar radios, solar hats, solar mobile phone chargers (power banks), solar watches, solar calculators, solar toys, etc.
(9) Application in outer space: The application of solar energy in outer space is mainly in satellites, spacecraft, solar space power stations, etc. Since solar cells have the advantages of high power, long life, good reliability, and can work well in the extremely harsh environment of outer space, and the solar radiation in outer space is relatively stable and is not affected by the earth's atmosphere and climate change, solar cells have been widely used as a relatively ideal space power source. Among the various types of aircraft launched into outer space by humans so far, most of them use solar cells as power sources.
(10) Application in other fields: Including solar electric vehicles, solar yachts, solar aircraft, solar electric bicycles, etc., using solar energy as a driving power source or auxiliary power source. There are also various solar charging equipment, solar hydrogen production and fuel cell regeneration power generation systems, solar air conditioners, ventilation fans, etc.