Fourth E C Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference

This paper is written in the belief that people are important and that equipment is to serve the needs of the people and therefore should be designed to meet their specific needs and environment. This is particularly important in the case of a developing country when a professional engineer accepts the responsibility to formulate policies evaluate equipment imple ment projects and train national people. 1. Government, geography and climate Papua New Guinea, an independent and self governing state since 1975, is located directly North of Australia above the North Eastern State of Queensland. The country extends from 141° east longitude, at the border with Indonesia (Irian Jaya) to 160° east longitude and between latitudes 1° and 12° south (see figure 1). Papua New Guinea is a parliamentary democracy, with a single legis lature known as the National Parliament (1). The State is divided into 19 provinces plus the National Capital District (Port Moresby) with de centralized Government established in each province. Before independence the country comprised the Australian territory of Papua in the southern regions and the United Nations Trust Territory of New Guinea in the North (1). Land area is 462,840 square kilometres This inclUdes the mainland, the three large islands of New Britain, ~ew Ireland and fiougainville plus 600 small islands and archipelagos. Approximate direct distances from the capital city of Port Moresby to some of the other centres are : Vanimo 990 km, Rabaul SOO km, Arawa 990 km and Lorengau S25 km.

I have great pleasure in presenting the Proceedings of the 10th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference held in Lisbon from 8 to 12 April 1991. These Proceedings contain all the scientific papers delivered at the Conference. The following is a short summary of the Conference activities. The Conference was opened by the Minister of Industry and Energy of Portugal, Eng. Luis Mira do Amaral. At the opening ceremony the Becquerel Prize, created by the Commission of the European Communities, was awarded to Professor Werner Bloss of the University of Stuttgart, and presented by Professor Philippe Bourdeau, Director at the Directorate-General for Science, Research and Development. The Becquerellecture delivered by Professor Bloss constituted the scientific opening to the conference. About 760 delegates from 53 countries presented around 350 contributions, 50 of them as plenary lectures; the contributions were selected among the many papers submitted, this time more strictly than ever before. Also a selected group of scientists were invited to deliver 15 review lectures, to provide an adequate context to the contributions to the Conference. A Symposium on Photovoltaics in Developing Countries, which was very well attended, took place as a parallel event. The Symposium provided an opportunity to hear not only experts of the industrialized countries, but also speakers from the countries where photovoltaics provides services of paramount value.

Proceedings of the International Conference held at Seville, Spain, October 27-31, 1986.