This article is about generation of electricity using solar energy. For other uses of solar energy, see
Solar energy.
The
PS10 concentrates sunlight from a field of heliostats onto a central tower.
Applications
Average
insolation showing land area (small black dots) required to replace the world primary energy supply with solar electricity. 18 TW is 568 Exajoule (EJ) per year. Insolation for most people is from 150 to 300 W/m
2 or 3.5 to 7.0 kWh/(m
2day).
Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into
electricity. Sunlight can be converted directly into electricity using
photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly with
concentrated solar power (CSP), which normally focuses the sun's energy to boil water which is then used to provide power. Other technologies also exist, such as
Stirling engine dishes which use a Stirling cycle engine to power a generator. Photovoltaics were initially used to power small and medium-sized applications, from the
calculator powered by a single solar cell to off-grid homes powered by a
photovoltaic array.
Concentrating solar power
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated heat is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exists; the most developed are the parabolic trough
[discuss], the concentrating linear fresnel reflector, the Stirling dish and the solar power tower. Various techniques are used to track the Sun and focus light. In all of these systems a
working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.
[2] Thermal storage efficiently allows up to 24 hour electricity generation.
[3]
A
parabolic trough consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The receiver is a tube positioned right above the middle of the parabolic mirror and is filled with a working fluid. The reflector is made to follow the Sun during the daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. Parabolic trough systems provide the best land-use factor of any solar technology.
[4] The
SEGS plants in California and Acciona's
Nevada Solar One near
Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology.
[5][6] Compact Linear Fresnel Reflectors are CSP-plants which use many thin mirror strips instead of parabolic mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto two tubes with working fluid. This has the advantage that flat mirrors can be used which are much cheaper than parabolic mirrors, and that more reflectors can be placed in the same amount of space, allowing more of the available sunlight to be used. Concentrating linear fresnel reflectors can be used in either large or more compact plants.
[7][8]
The Stirling solar dish combines a parabolic concentrating dish with a
Stirling engine which normally drives an electric generator. The advantages of Stirling solar over photovoltaic cells are higher efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity and longer lifetime. Parabolic dish systems give the highest efficiency among CSP technologies.
[9] The 50 kW
Big Dish in
Canberra, Australia is an example of this technology.
[5]
Photovoltaics
Main article:
Photovoltaics
A
solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a device that converts light into electric current using the
photoelectric effect. The first solar cell was constructed by
Charles Fritts in the 1880s.
[10] In 1931 a German engineer, Dr Bruno Lange, developed a photo cell using silver selenide in place of copper oxide.
[11] Although the prototype
selenium cells converted less than 1% of incident light into electricity, both
Ernst Werner von Siemens and
James Clerk Maxwell recognized the importance of this discovery.
[12] Following the work of
Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson,
Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the
silicon solar cell in 1954.
[13] These early solar cells cost 286 USD/watt and reached efficiencies of 4.5–6%.
[14]
Photovoltaic power systems
Simplified schematics of a grid-connected residential PV power system
[15]
Solar cells produce direct current (DC) power, which fluctuates with the intensity of the irradiated light. This usually requires conversion to certain desired voltages or alternating current (AC), which requires the use of
inverters.
[15] Multiple solar cells are connected inside the modules. Modules are wired together to form arrays, then tied to an inverter, which produces power at the desired voltage, and for AC, frequency/phase.
[15]
Many residential systems are connected to the grid wherever available, especially in the developed countries with large markets.
[16] In these
grid-connected PV systems, use of energy storage is optional. In certain applications such as satellites, lighthouses, or in developing countries, batteries or additional power generators are often added as back-ups, which forms
stand-alone power systems.
Development and deployment
The early development of solar technologies starting in the 1860s was driven by an expectation that coal would soon become scarce. However, development of solar technologies stagnated in the early 20th century in the face of the increasing availability, economy, and utility of coal and
petroleum.
[17] In 1974 it was estimated that only six private homes in all of North America were entirely heated or cooled by functional solar power systems.
[18] The
1973 oil embargo and
1979 energy crisiscaused a reorganization of energy policies around the world and brought renewed attention to developing solar technologies.
[19][20] Deployment strategies focused on incentive programs such as the Federal Photovoltaic Utilization Program in the US and the Sunshine Program in Japan. Other efforts included the formation of research facilities in the US (SERI, now
NREL), Japan (
NEDO), and
Germany (
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE).
[21]
Between 1970 and 1983 photovoltaic installations grew rapidly, but falling oil prices in the early 1980s moderated the growth of PV from 1984 to 1996. Since 1997, PV development has accelerated due to supply issues with oil and natural gas,
global warming concerns, and the improving economic position of PV relative to other energy technologies.
[22] Photovoltaic production growth has averaged 40% per year since 2000 and installed capacity reached 39.8 GW at the end of 2010,
[23] of them 17.4 GW in
Germany. As of October 2011, the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the world are the
Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant (Canada, 97 MW),
Montalto di Castro Photovoltaic Power Station (Italy, 84.2 MW) and
Finsterwalde Solar Park(Germany, 80.7 MW).
[24]
Photovoltaic power stations
Concentrating solar thermal power
Economics
Projection of levelized cost of PV energy in Europe.
[51]
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in March 2011, put the 2010 cost of solar panels at $1.80 per watt, but estimated that the price would decline to $1.50 per watt by the end of 2011.
[52] Nevertheless, there are exceptions—
Nellis Air Force Base is receiving photoelectric power for about 2.2 ¢/kWh and grid power for 9 ¢/kWh.
[53][54] Also, since PV systems use no fuel and modules typically last 25 to 40 years, the International Conference on Solar Photovoltaic Investments, organized by
EPIA, has estimated that PV systems will pay back their investors in 8 to 12 years.
[55] As a result, since 2006 it has been economical for investors to install photovoltaics for free in return for a long term
power purchase agreement. Fifty percent of commercial systems were installed in this manner in 2007 and it is expected that 90% will by 2009.
[56]
As of 2011, the cost of PV has fallen well below that of nuclear power and is set to fall further. The average retail price of solar cells as monitored by the Solarbuzz group fell from $3.50/watt to $2.43/watt over the course of 2011, and a decline to prices below $2.00/watt seems inevitable:
[57]
For large-scale installations, prices below $1.00/watt are now common. In some locations, PV has reached grid parity, the cost at which it is competitive with coal or gas-fired generation. More generally, it is now evident that, given a carbon price of $50/ton, which would raise the price of coal-fired power by 5c/kWh, solar PV will be cost-competitive in most locations. The declining price of PV has been reflected in rapidly growing installations, totalling about 23 GW in 2011. Although some consolidation is likely in 2012, as firms try to restore profitability, strong growth seems likely to continue for the rest of the decade. Already, by one estimate, total investment in renewables for 2011 exceeded investment in carbon-based electricity generation.
[57]
Additionally, governments have created various financial incentives to encourage the use of solar power, such as
feed-in tariff programs. Also,
Renewable portfolio standards impose a government mandate that utilities generate or acquire a certain percentage of renewable power regardless of increased energy procurement costs. In most states, RPS goals can be achieved by any combination of solar, wind, biomass,
landfill gas, ocean, geothermal,
municipal solid waste, hydroelectric, hydrogen, or fuel cell technologies.
[58]
Shi Zhengrong has said that, as of 2012, unsubsidised solar power is already competitive with fossil fuels in India, Hawaii, Italy and Spain. He said "We are at a tipping point. No longer are renewable power sources like solar and wind a luxury of the rich. They are now starting to compete in the real world without subsidies". "Solar power will be able to compete without subsidies against conventional power sources in half the world by 2015".
[59]
Energy storage methods
Seasonal variation of the output of the solar panels at
AT&T Park in San Francisco
Solar energy is not available at night, making energy storage an important issue in order to provide the continuous availability of energy.
[60] Both
wind power and solar power are
intermittent energy sources, meaning that all available output must be taken when it is available and either stored for
when it can be used, or transported, over transmission lines, to
where it can be used. Wind power and solar power tend to be somewhat complementary, as there tends to be more wind in the winter and more sun in the summer, but on days with no sun and no wind the difference needs to be made up in some manner.
[61] The Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology of the
University of Kassel pilot-tested a
combined power plant linking solar, wind,
biogas and
hydrostorage to provide load-following power around the clock, entirely from renewable sources.
[62]
Solar energy can be stored at high temperatures using molten salts. Salts are an effective storage medium because they are low-cost, have a high specific heat capacity and can deliver heat at temperatures compatible with conventional power systems. The
Solar Two used this method of energy storage, allowing it to store 1.44
TJ in its 68 m³ storage tank, enough to provide full output for close to 39 hours, with an efficiency of about 99%.
[63]
Off-grid PV systems have traditionally used
rechargeable batteries to store excess electricity. With grid-tied systems, excess electricity can be sent to the transmission
grid.
Net metering programs give these systems a credit for the electricity they deliver to the grid. This credit offsets electricity provided from the grid when the system cannot meet demand, effectively using the grid as a storage mechanism. Credits are normally rolled over month to month and any remaining surplus settled annually.
[64]
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity stores energy in the form of water pumped when surplus electricity is available, from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation one. The energy is recovered when demand is high by releasing the water: the pump becomes a turbine, and the motor a hydroelectric power generator.
[65]
Artificial photosynthesis involves the use of
nanotechnology to store solar electromagnetic energy in chemical bonds, by splitting water to produce
hydrogen fuel or then combining with carbon dioxide to make biopolymers such as
methanol. Many large national and regional research projects on artificial photosynthesis are now trying to develop techniques integrating improved light capture, quantum coherence methods of electron transfer and cheap catalytic materials that operate under a variety of atmospheric conditions.
[66]
Experimental solar power
Concentrating photovoltaics in Catalonia, Spain
Thermoelectric, or "thermovoltaic" devices convert a temperature difference between dissimilar materials into an electric current. First proposed as a method to store solar energy by solar pioneer Mouchout in the 1800s,
[69] thermoelectrics reemerged in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Under the direction of Soviet scientist
Abram Ioffe a concentrating system was used to thermoelectrically generate power for a 1
hp engine.
[70]Thermogenerators were later used in the US space program as an energy conversion technology for powering deep space missions such as
Cassini,
Galileo and
Viking. Research in this area is focused on raising the efficiency of these devices from 7–8% to 15–20%.
[71]
FROM WIKIPEDIA cpoyrights@eyeindian
