USCG PV POWER SUPPLY

THE OBJECT OF THIS WORK IS TO DEVELOP A PROOF OF CONCEPT PROTOTYPE BUOY PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SUPPLY DESIGN WHICH WILL BE A PART OF A SINGLE UNIT INSTALLED ON A BUOY'S STRUCTURE. THIS SYSTEM INTERFACES WITH A STATUS MONITORING SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATION OF SYSTEM PARAMETERS TO REMOTE MONITORING STATIONS. DESIGN WORK WILL DEVELOP NEW APPROACHES TO THE UTILIZATION OF SOLAR CELL ARRAYS TO GENERATE ELECTRICAL POWER, POWER CONTROL, CONDITIONING AND STORAGE. USE OF PLANAR NON-FOCUSING CONCENTRATORS WILL BE EVALUATED AS WILL NEW BATTERY TECHNOLOGIES AND A NOVEL MULTIPLE CHARGE BUS CONFIGURATION. THE DESIGN WILL EXHIBIT INCREASED POWER OUTPUT CAPABILITIES, EXPANDING THE RANGE OF SOLAR POWER APPLICATION. AN ADVANCED SYSTEM SIMULATOR WILL BE USED TO ANALYZE POSSIBLE SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS AND WILL BE USED TO SIZE SYSTEMS FOR PARTICULAR BUOY APPLICATIONS AND EVALUATE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE OVER A WIDE RANGE OF OPERATIONAL SCENARIOS. MANY APPLICATIONS EXIST FOR SMALL SYSTEMS THAT MUST OPERATE AUTONOMOUSLY, RANGING FROM CELLULAR PAY OR EMERGENCY PHONES TO PIPELINE MONITORING STATIONS OR VEHICULAR MONITORING SYSTEMS. THE INCREASED POWER CAPABILITIES OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM COULD MAKE PREVIOUSLY IMPRACTICAL SYSTEM CONCEPTS AVAILABLE FOR USE. PHASE I DESIGN WORK WILL ENABLE SYSTEM PHASE II IMPLEMENTATION AND INTEGRATION INTO OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS.