Fig. 3. Cost reduction and market growth of solar cell. be seen to include typical fields at advanced stage. The current situation lies at the boundary region between public use and industrial use. As for the stand alone power supply, the solar powered water pumping system belongs to batteryless application, while village power, relay terminal power supplies, street lighting systems, etc., require battery back-up. On the other hand, many experimental systems which are connected to grid line have been constructed for the purpose of energy conservation. In the USA, a solar power generation station of 16.5 MWp capacity has been under construction. INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION International co-operation on solar cell technology has become markedly promoted. According to the SUMMIT agreement, Japan is expected to play a leading roll. On the other hand, IEC has decided to establish TEC/TC82 (Solar Photovoltaic Energy Systems), where international standards for photovoltaic power generation system and all the elements included in the system are going to be treated. TEC/TC82 has three working groups dealing with glossary, module and system, respectively. These activities show that the photovoltaic industry will grow steadily to become one of the substantial industries. SOME EXAMPLES ON PROGRESS OF SPACE-USE SOLAR CELL TECHNOLOGY The targets of research on space-use solar cell are an increase of efficiency, a lightweight cell, and cost decrease and improvement of radiation damage. In order to
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