Solar Photovoltaics

Harnessing the energy of the sun is a very attractive approach to meeting our energy needs. There are a range of converter technologies such as solar collectors (for hot water), solar concentrators (for thermal electricity generation) and photovoltaics (PV). PV is an elegant solution, a converter with no moving parts, which is has a long lifetime (25 years + for mono-crystalline silicon) and minimal maintenance burden (dc side of a system). PV may be applied as either a grid connected or off-grid, standalone system. Standalone systems are usually employed in developing countries to provide lighting, refrigeration or power for communication systems. PV is competing with diesel generators in these applications which have high maintenance, fuel and supply costs. Grid connected PV offers the potential for energy generation at the point of use in urban environments or large scale solar plants in solar resource rich locations such as southern Spain and California. In terms of microgeneration in the built environment, the potential energy yield from PV is perhaps the easiest to predict. Roofs and facades offer large areas at suitable inclinations / orientations.