Photovoltaics (PV) is a term which covers the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry.

A typical photovoltaic system employs solar panels, each comprising a number of solar cells, which generate electrical power. PV installations may be ground-mounted, rooftop mounted or wall mounted. The mount may be fixed, or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky.

Solar PV has specific advantages as an energy source: once installed, its operation generates no pollution and no greenhouse gas emissions, it shows simple scalability in respect of power needs and silicon has large availability in the Earth’s crust.

PV systems have the major disadvantage that the power output works best with direct sunlight, so about 10-25% is lost if a tracking system is not used. Dust, clouds, and other obstructions in the atmosphere also diminish the power output. Another important issue is the concentration of the production in the hours corresponding to main insolation, which do not usually match the peaks in demand in human activity cycles. Unless current societal patterns of consumption and electrical networks adjust to this scenario, electricity still needs to be stored for later use or made up by other power sources, usually hydrocarbons.

Photovoltaic systems have long been used in specialized applications, and standalone and grid-connected PV systems have been in use since the 1990s. They were first mass-produced in 2000, when German environmentalists and the Eurosolar organization got government funding for a ten thousand roof program.

Advances in technology and increased manufacturing scale have in any case reduced the cost, increased the reliability, and increased the efficiency of photovoltaic installations. Net metering and financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity, have supported solar PV installations in many countries. More than 100 countries now use solar PV.

After hydro and wind powers, PV is the third renewable energy source in terms of global capacity. At the end of 2016, worldwide installed PV capacity increased to more than 300 gigawatts (GW), covering approximately two percent of global electricity demand. China, followed by Japan and the United States, is the fastest growing market, while Germany remains the world’s largest producer, with solar PV providing seven percent of annual domestic electricity consumption. With current technology (as of 2013), photovoltaics recoups the energy needed to manufacture them in 1.5 years in Southern Europe and 2.5 years in Northern Europe.

Renewability
Depending on the type of photovoltaic cell considered, the renewable nature of this energy is partly debatable, because the manufacture of photovoltaic panels requires energy whose origin is currently essentially non-renewable. Indeed, the countries that produce almost all photovoltaic panels installed in the world (China, United States, Japan, India), all have energy balances massively dominated by non-renewable energies; for example, China, which produces 80% of the panels installed in Europe 3, derives 86% of its energy from non-renewable sources.

However, the energy return rate of photovoltaic systems has improved thanks to successive technological advances. Depending on the technologies, a photovoltaic system produces between 20 and 40 times more energy throughout its operation (primary equivalent) than what was used to manufacture it 5.

Technical Basics
For energy conversion, the photoelectric effect of solar cells is used, which are connected to so-called solar modules. The electricity generated can be used directly, stored in accumulators or fed into electricity grids. Before being fed into AC – grids generated is direct current of a inverter converted. The system of solar modules and the other components (inverter, power line) is called a photovoltaic system or solar generator.

Nominal output and yield
The nominal power of photovoltaic systems is often indicated in the notation W p (Watt Peak) or kW p and refers to the performance under test conditions that correspond approximately to the maximum solar radiation in Germany. The test conditions serve to standardize and compare different solar modules. The electrical values of the components are given in data sheets. It is measured at 25 ° C module temperature, 1000 W / m² irradiance and an air mass (abbreviated AM) of 1.5. These standard test conditions (usually abbreviated STC, standard test conditions) were set as international standards. If these conditions can not be met during testing, the rated power must be determined by calculation from the given test conditions.

For comparison: The radiation intensity of the sun in the near-earth space (solar constant) is on average 1367 W / m². (On the ground, about 75% of this energy arrives in clear weather.)

Decisive for the dimensioning and the amortization of a photovoltaic system is, in addition to the peak output, above all the annual yield, ie the amount of electrical energy generated. The radiation energy fluctuates daily, seasonal and weather conditions. In Germany, for example, a solar plant in Germany can have up to ten times the yield in December compared to December. Daily updated feed-in data with high temporal resolution are freely accessible for the years from 2011 on the Internet.

The yield per year is measured in watt-hours (Wh) or kilowatt-hours (kWh). The location and orientation of the modules as well as shading have a significant influence on the yield, with roof inclinations of 30-40 ° and orientation to the south providing the highest yield in Central Europe. At the maximum height of the sun (midday sun) oriented, should be in Germany at a fixed installation (without tracking) the optimal inclination to the south of the country about 32 °, be in the north about 37 degrees. In practice, a slightly higher angle of inclination is recommended, since then twice a day (in the morning and in the afternoon) and twice a year (in May and July), the system is optimally aligned. In open space systems, therefore, such alignments are usually chosen. Although the average solar altitude distributed over the year and thus the theoretically optimal slope can be calculated exactly for each latitude, the actual radiation is along one latitudedifferent due to different, mostly terrain-dependent factors (eg shading or special local weather conditions). Since the plant-dependent effectiveness with respect to the angle of incidence is different, the optimal orientation must be determined in each case site and plant related. In these energetic investigations, the location-based global radiation is determined, which in addition to direct solar radiation also includes diffuse radiation incident on scattering (eg clouds) or reflection (eg nearby house walls or the ground).

The specific yield is defined as watt-hours per installed nominal output (Wh / W p or kWh / kW p) per period and allows easy comparison of systems of different sizes. In Germany, with a fairly optimally aligned permanently installed system per module area of 1 kWp, an annual yield of approximately 1,000 kWh can be expected, whereby the values fluctuate between about 900 kWh in northern Germany and 1150 kWh in southern Germany.

Mounting systems for roofs

Rooftop with photovoltaic system for electricity and solar collectors for hot water production
The mounting systems distinguish between rooftop systems and in-roof systems. In a rooftop system for sloped rooftops, the photovoltaic system is mounted on the roof by means of a mounting frame. This type of installation is chosen most often because it is easiest to implement for existing roofs.

In an in-roof system, a photovoltaic system is integrated into the roof cladding and takes over its functions such as roof sealing and weather protection. Advantageous in such systems are the visually attractive appearance and the saving of a roof covering, so that the higher assembly costs can often be compensated.

The roof-mounted installation is suitable for tiled roofs and tin roofs, slate roofs or corrugated sheets. If the roof pitch is too shallow, special hooks can compensate for this to some extent. The installation of an on-roof system is usually simpler and cheaper than an in-roof system. An on-roof system also ensures adequate ventilation of the solar modules. The fastening materials must be weatherproof.

The in-roof system is suitable for roof renovations and new buildings, but is not possible on all roofs. Tile roofs do not allow in-roof mounting, tin roofs or bitumen roofs. The shape of the roof is also decisive. The in-roof installation is only suitable for sufficiently large pitched roofs with favorable orientation to the sun track. In general, in-roof systems require larger angles of inclination than roof-mounted systems in order to allow sufficient rainwater drainage. In-roof systems form with the remaining roofinga closed surface and are therefore attractive from an aesthetic point of view. In addition, an in-roof system has a higher mechanical stability against snow and wind loads. However, the cooling of the modules is less efficient than the rooftop system, which reduces the power and yield a bit. A temperature higher by 1 ° C reduces the module output by approx. 0.5%.

Efficiency
Electrical efficiency (also called conversion efficiency) is a contributing factor in the selection of a photovoltaic system. However, the most efficient solar panels are typically the most expensive, and may not be commercially available. Therefore, selection is also driven by cost efficiency and other factors.

The electrical efficiency of a PV cell is a physical property which represents how much electrical power a cell can produce for a given insolation. The basic expression for maximum efficiency of a photovoltaic cell is given by the ratio of output power to the incident solar power (radiation flux times area)

The efficiency is measured under ideal laboratory conditions and represents the maximum achievable efficiency of the PV material. Actual efficiency is influenced by the output Voltage, current, junction temperature, light intensity and spectrum.

The most efficient type of solar cell to date is a multi-junction concentrator solar cell with an efficiency of 46.0% produced by Fraunhofer ISE in December 2014. The highest efficiencies achieved without concentration include a material by Sharp Corporation at 35.8% using a proprietary triple-junction manufacturing technology in 2009, and Boeing Spectrolab (40.7% also using a triple-layer design). The US company SunPower produces cells that have an efficiency of 21.5%, well above the market average of 12–18%.

Manufacturing
Overall the manufacturing process of creating solar photovoltaics is simple in that it does not require the culmination of many complex or moving parts. Because of the solid state nature of PV systems they often have relatively long lifetimes, anywhere from 10 to 30 years. To increase electrical output of a PV system, the manufacturer must simply add more photovoltaic components and because of this economies of scale are important for manufacturers as costs decrease with increasing output.

While there are many types of PV systems known to be effective, crystalline silicon PV accounted for around 90% of the worldwide production of PV in 2013. Manufacturing silicon PV systems has several steps. First, polysilicon is processed from mined quartz until it is very pure (semi-conductor grade). This is melted down when small amounts of boron, a group III element, are added to make a p-type semiconductor rich in electron holes. Typically using a seed crystal, an ingot of this solution is grown from the liquid polycrystalline. The ingot may also be cast in a mold. Wafers of this semiconductor material are cut from the bulk material with wire saws, and then go through surface etching before being cleaned. Next, the wafers are placed into a phosphorus vapor deposition furnace which lays a very thin layer of phosphorus, a group V element, which creates an n-type semiconducting surface. To reduce energy losses, an anti-reflective coating is added to the surface, along with electrical contacts. After finishing the cell, cells are connected via electrical circuit according to the specific application and prepared for shipping and installation.

Crystalline silicon photovoltaics are only one type of PV, and while they represent the majority of solar cells produced currently there are many new and promising technologies that have the potential to be scaled up to meet future energy needs.

Another newer technology, thin-film PV, are manufactured by depositing semiconducting layers on substrate in vacuum. The substrate is often glass or stainless-steel, and these semiconducting layers are made of many types of materials including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium diselenide (CIS), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous silicon (a-Si). After being deposited onto the substrate the semiconducting layers are separated and connected by electrical circuit by laser-scribing. Thin-film photovoltaics now make up around 20% of the overall production of PV because of the reduced materials requirements and cost to manufacture modules consisting of thin-films as compared to silicon-based wafers.

Other emerging PV technologies include organic, dye-sensitized, quantum-dot, and Perovskite photovoltaics. OPVs fall into the thin-film category of manufacturing, and typically operate around the 12% efficiency range which is lower than the 12–21% typically seen by silicon based PVs. Because organic photovoltaics require very high purity and are relatively reactive they must be encapsulated which vastly increases cost of manufacturing and meaning that they are not feasible for large scale up. Dye-sensitized PVs are similar in efficiency to OPVs but are significantly easier to manufacture. However these dye-sensitized photovoltaics present storage problems because the liquid electrolyte is toxic and can potentially permeate the plastics used in the cell. Quantum dot solar cells are quantum dot sensitized DSSCs and are solution processed meaning they are potentially scalable, but currently they peak at 12% efficiency. Perovskite solar cells are a very efficient solar energy converter and have excellent optoelectric properties for photovoltaic purposes, but they are expensive and difficult to manufacture.

Applications

Photovoltaic systems
A photovoltaic system, or solar PV system is a power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and directly convert sunlight into electricity, a solar inverter to change the electric current from DC to AC, as well as mounting, cabling and other electrical accessories. PV systems range from small, roof-top mounted or building-integrated systems with capacities from a few to several tens of kilowatts, to large utility-scale power stations of hundreds of megawatts. Nowadays, most PV systems are grid-connected, while stand-alone systems only account for a small portion of the market.

Rooftop and building integrated systems
Photovoltaic arrays are often associated with buildings: either integrated into them, mounted on them or mounted nearby on the ground. Rooftop PV systems are most often retrofitted into existing buildings, usually mounted on top of the existing roof structure or on the existing walls. Alternatively, an array can be located separately from the building but connected by cable to supply power for the building. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are increasingly incorporated into the roof or walls of new domestic and industrial buildings as a principal or ancillary source of electrical power. Roof tiles with integrated PV cells are sometimes used as well. Provided there is an open gap in which air can circulate, rooftop mounted solar panels can provide a passive cooling effect on buildings during the day and also keep accumulated heat in at night. Typically, residential rooftop systems have small capacities of around 5–10 kW, while commercial rooftop systems often amount to several hundreds of kilowatts. Although rooftop systems are much smaller than ground-mounted utility-scale power plants, they account for most of the worldwide installed capacity.

Concentrator photovoltaics
Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) is a photovoltaic technology that contrary to conventional flat-plate PV systems uses lenses and curved mirrors to focus sunlight onto small, but highly efficient, multi-junction (MJ) solar cells. In addition, CPV systems often use solar trackers and sometimes a cooling system to further increase their efficiency. Ongoing research and development is rapidly improving their competitiveness in the utility-scale segment and in areas of high solar insolation.

Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector
Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector (PVT) are systems that convert solar radiation into thermal and electrical energy. These systems combine a solar PV cell, which converts sunlight into electricity, with a solar thermal collector, which captures the remaining energy and removes waste heat from the PV module. The capture of both electricity and heat allow these devices to have higher exergy and thus be more overall energy efficient than solar PV or solar thermal alone.

Power stations
Many utility-scale solar farms have been constructed all over the world. As of 2015, the 579-megawatt (MWAC) Solar Star is the world’s largest photovoltaic power station, followed by the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm and the Topaz Solar Farm, both with a capacity of 550 MWAC, constructed by US-company First Solar, using CdTe modules, a thin-film PV technology. All three power stations are located in the Californian desert. Many solar farms around the world are integrated with agriculture and some use innovative solar tracking systems that follow the sun’s daily path across the sky to generate more electricity than conventional fixed-mounted systems. There are no fuel costs or emissions during operation of the power stations.

Rural electrification
Developing countries where many villages are often more than five kilometers away from grid power are increasingly using photovoltaics. In remote locations in India a rural lighting program has been providing solar powered LED lighting to replace kerosene lamps. The solar powered lamps were sold at about the cost of a few months’ supply of kerosene. Cuba is working to provide solar power for areas that are off grid. More complex applications of off-grid solar energy use include 3D printers. RepRap 3D printers have been solar powered with photovoltaic technology, which enables distributed manufacturing for sustainable development. These are areas where the social costs and benefits offer an excellent case for going solar, though the lack of profitability has relegated such endeavors to humanitarian efforts. However, in 1995 solar rural electrification projects had been found to be difficult to sustain due to unfavorable economics, lack of technical support, and a legacy of ulterior motives of north-to-south technology transfer.

Standalone systems
Until a decade or so ago, PV was used frequently to power calculators and novelty devices. Improvements in integrated circuits and low power liquid crystal displays make it possible to power such devices for several years between battery changes, making PV use less common. In contrast, solar powered remote fixed devices have seen increasing use recently in locations where significant connection cost makes grid power prohibitively expensive. Such applications include solar lamps, water pumps, parking meters, emergency telephones, trash compactors, temporary traffic signs, charging stations, and remote guard posts and signals.

Floatovoltaics
In May 2008, the Far Niente Winery in Oakville, CA pioneered the world’s first “floatovoltaic” system by installing 994 photovoltaic solar panels onto 130 pontoons and floating them on the winery’s irrigation pond. The floating system generates about 477 kW of peak output and when combined with an array of cells located adjacent to the pond is able to fully offset the winery’s electricity consumption. The primary benefit of a floatovoltaic system is that it avoids the need to sacrifice valuable land area that could be used for another purpose. In the case of the Far Niente Winery, the floating system saved three-quarters of an acre that would have been required for a land-based system. That land area can instead be used for agriculture. Another benefit of a floatovoltaic system is that the panels are kept at a lower temperature than they would be on land, leading to a higher efficiency of solar energy conversion. The floating panels also reduce the amount of water lost through evaporation and inhibit the growth of algae.

In transport
PV has traditionally been used for electric power in space. PV is rarely used to provide motive power in transport applications, but is being used increasingly to provide auxiliary power in boats and cars. Some automobiles are fitted with solar-powered air conditioning to limit interior temperatures on hot days. A self-contained solar vehicle would have limited power and utility, but a solar-charged electric vehicle allows use of solar power for transportation. Solar-powered cars, boats and airplanes have been demonstrated, with the most practical and likely of these being solar cars. The Swiss solar aircraft, Solar Impulse 2, achieved the longest non-stop solo flight in history and plan to make the first solar-powered aerial circumnavigation of the globe in 2015.

Telecommunication and signaling
Solar PV power is ideally suited for telecommunication applications such as local telephone exchange, radio and TV broadcasting, microwave and other forms of electronic communication links. This is because, in most telecommunication application, storage batteries are already in use and the electrical system is basically DC. In hilly and mountainous terrain, radio and TV signals may not reach as they get blocked or reflected back due to undulating terrain. At these locations, low power transmitters (LPT) are installed to receive and retransmit the signal for local population.

Spacecraft applications
Solar panels on spacecraft are usually the sole source of power to run the sensors, active heating and cooling, and communications. A battery stores this energy for use when the solar panels are in shadow. In some, the power is also used for spacecraft propulsion—electric propulsion. Spacecraft were one of the earliest applications of photovoltaics, starting with the silicon solar cells used on the Vanguard 1 satellite, launched by the US in 1958. Since then, solar power has been used on missions ranging from the MESSENGER probe to Mercury, to as far out in the solar system as the Juno probe to Jupiter. The largest solar power system flown in space is the electrical system of the International Space Station. To increase the power generated per kilogram, typical spacecraft solar panels use high-cost, high-efficiency, and close-packed rectangular multi-junction solar cells made of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other semiconductor materials.

Specialty Power Systems
Photovoltaics may also be incorporated as energy conversion devices for objects at elevated temperatures and with preferable radiative emissivities such as heterogeneous combustors.

Advantages
The 122 PW of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface is plentiful—almost 10,000 times more than the 13 TW equivalent of average power consumed in 2005 by humans. This abundance leads to the suggestion that it will not be long before solar energy will become the world’s primary energy source. Additionally, solar electric generation has the highest power density (global mean of 170 W/m2) among renewable energies.

Solar power is pollution-free during use, which enables it to cut down on pollution when it is substituted for other energy sources. For example, MIT estimated that 52,000 people per year die prematurely in the U.S. from coal-fired power plant pollution and all but one of these deaths could be prevented from using PV to replace coal. Production end-wastes and emissions are manageable using existing pollution controls. End-of-use recycling technologies are under development and policies are being produced that encourage recycling from producers.

PV installations can operate for 100 years or even more with little maintenance or intervention after their initial set-up, so after the initial capital cost of building any solar power plant, operating costs are extremely low compared to existing power technologies.

Grid-connected solar electricity can be used locally thus reducing transmission/distribution losses (transmission losses in the US were approximately 7.2% in 1995).

Compared to fossil and nuclear energy sources, very little research money has been invested in the development of solar cells, so there is considerable room for improvement. Nevertheless, experimental high efficiency solar cells already have efficiencies of over 40% in case of concentrating photovoltaic cells and efficiencies are rapidly rising while mass-production costs are rapidly falling.

In some states of the United States, much of the investment in a home-mounted system may be lost if the home-owner moves and the buyer puts less value on the system than the seller. The city of Berkeley developed an innovative financing method to remove this limitation, by adding a tax assessment that is transferred with the home to pay for the solar panels. Now known as PACE, Property Assessed Clean Energy, 30 U.S. states have duplicated this solution.

There is evidence, at least in California, that the presence of a home-mounted solar system can actually increase the value of a home. According to a paper published in April 2011 by the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory titled An Analysis of the Effects of Residential Photovoltaic Energy Systems on Home Sales Prices in California:

The research finds strong evidence that homes with PV systems in California have sold for a premium over comparable homes without PV systems. More specifically, estimates for average PV premiums range from approximately $3.9 to $6.4 per installed watt (DC) among a large number of different model specifications, with most models coalescing near $5.5/watt. That value corresponds to a premium of approximately $17,000 for a relatively new 3,100 watt PV system (the average size of PV systems in the study).
Limitations

Pollution and Energy in Production
PV has been a well-known method of generating clean, emission free electricity. PV systems are often made of PV modules and inverter (changing DC to AC). PV modules are mainly made of PV cells, which has no fundamental difference to the material for making computer chips. The process of producing PV cells (computer chips) is energy intensive and involves highly poisonous and environmental toxic chemicals. There are few PV manufacturing plants around the world producing PV modules with energy produced from PV. This measure greatly reduces the carbon footprint during the manufacturing process. Managing the chemicals used in the manufacturing process is subject to the factories’ local laws and regulations.

Impact on Electricity Network
With the increasing levels of rooftop photovoltaic systems, the energy flow becomes 2-way. When there is more local generation than consumption, electricity is exported to the grid. However, electricity network traditionally is not designed to deal with the 2- way energy transfer. Therefore, some technical issues may occur. For example, in Queensland Australia, there have been more than 30% of households with rooftop PV by the end of 2017. The famous Californian 2020 duck curve appears very often for a lot of communities from 2015 onwards. An over-voltage issue may come out as the electricity flows from these PV households back to the network. There are solutions to manage the over voltage issue, such as regulating PV inverter power factor, new voltage and energy control equipment at electricity distributor level, re-conductor the electricity wires, demand side management, etc. There are often limitations and costs related to these solutions.

Implication onto Electricity Bill Management and Energy Investment
There is no silver bullet in electricity or energy demand and bill management, because customers (sites) have different specific situations, e.g. different comfort/convenience needs, different electricity tariffs, or different usage patterns. Electricity tariff may have a few elements, such as daily access and metering charge, energy charge (based on kWh, MWh) or peak demand charge (e.g. a price for the highest 30min energy consumption in a month). PV is a promising option for reducing energy charge when electricity price is reasonably high and continuously increasing, such as in Australia and Germany. However, for sites with peak demand charge in place, PV may be less attractive if peak demands mostly occur in the late afternoon to early evening, for example residential communities. Overall, energy investment is largely an economical decision and it is better to make investment decisions based on systematical evaluation of options in operational improvement, energy efficiency, onsite generation and energy storage.

Source from Wikipedia