Solar Energy Part I

Principles of Solar Energy

 Contents
1. What is Solar Energy?
2. Solar Intensity and Latitude
3. How Much Solar Energy We Receive?
4. Major Uses of Solar Energy
5. What is Solar PV and How Do We Access it?
6. Generations of Solar PV
7. Factors Affecting Solar PV Performance
8. Solar PV Penetration
9. Carbon Accounting for Solar PV
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 What is Solar Energy?
 Solar energy technologies use the energy that comes from the sun.

 Inside the sun, hydrogen atoms combine to make helium, and the
process produces the extreme amount of heat that is felt on Earth.

 The core of the sun has a temperature of 20,000,000 C. The

surface of the sun, called the photosphere, has a temperature of
5,538 C.

 The energy that the sun creates has to travel 150,000,000

kilometers to reach the surface of Earth.

 This power, sometimes called radiation, is spread out when it hits

the water vapor, molecules of gas, and clouds that surround Earth.
 What is Solar Energy?

 The sunlight that does reach the ground is called direct radiation or
beam radiation. If the sunlight hits something before reaching the
ground, it is called diffuse radiation.

 The amount of solar radiation that reaches the surface of Earth is

69% and the other is reflected back.

 The amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface every
hour is greater than humankind’s total demand for energy in one year

 Solar energy helps keep the oceans from freezing and pushes their
currents. It also prevents Earth’s atmosphere from freezing.
 What is Solar Energy?

 The sun’s energy is created from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei into
helium nuclei.

 Components of Solar Radiation:

• Direct radiation
• Diffuse radiation
• Reflect radiation

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 Solar Intensity and Latitude

Solar intensity, defined as the energy per area, is different at different latitude.
A sunlight beam that strikes at an angle is spread across a greater surface area, and is a
less intense heat source than a beam impinging directly.

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 How Much Solar Energy We Receive?

 If we take all of the solar radiation that hits the surface of

the Earth across a year - including the time that the sun’s not
shining on it - we can calculate that every square meter on
the earth’s surface receives about 140 Watts of direct
sunlight on average.

 Of course this number varies depending on the distance

from the equator and the typical cloud cover and other
atmospheric conditions.

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Each square meter of the
earth’s surface receives,
on average, enough
power annually to run
your average ceiling fan,
while two square meters
might receive enough to
run a plasma TV, and
three square meters
might run a small
washing machine.

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 Major Uses of Solar Energy

 Passive Use

 Active Use

 Photovoltaic

 Concentrated Solar Thermal

 Passive Use of Solar Energy
• The passive methods have been used for thousands of years
and require minimal technology.

• The best application of passive use can be seen in building

infrastructure, with simple design techniques that maximize
the impact of the sun.

• These include: building orientation, natural light (and heat)

collection and thermal differences used to encourage
ventilation.

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Passive Use of Solar Energy

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 Active Use of Solar Energy

• Active solar heating uses the Sun combined with some

moving parts, like a water pump.

• The most common examples of these are solar hot water

systems for households and swimming pools, and basic solar
cook stoves.

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Active Use of Solar Energy

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 Photovoltaic
• Perhaps the most recognizable method, at least in recent
times, is photovoltaics, or solar PV.

• Typically, we see panels of solar PV cells, using the

photovoltaic effect, to convert sunlight into electrical current.

• Solar PV is applied on rooftops, in utility scale solar fields

and even on spacecraft.

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Photovoltaic

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 Concentrated Solar Thermal (CSP)
This type is less common, but not less powerful method, in
which the solar radiation from the sun is concentrated using
mirrors or reflective surfaces, to heat a thermal fluid which is
then used to run a steam power cycle to generate electricity.
This is known as concentrated Solar thermal.

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 What is Solar PV and how do we access it?

• Solar Photovoltaics, or Solar PV, is often used as the symbol

of renewable energy, one of the foundation technologies.

• So, what is it? And how does it work?

• The photovoltaic effect, converting light directly into

electricity, was first discovered in 1839, by French physicist
Alexandre Becquerel.

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• When photons are absorbed by the right sort materials, they effectively
‘knock’ electrons out of their natural spot in an atom.
• This creates a hole, with a +ve charge, and an electron, with a -ve charge.
• Now this electron-hole pair they want to recombine because they are more
stable together than apart.
• But by using the right combination of materials we can entice this electron to
travel around an electrical circuit before it recombines with the hole. And in
so doing we create electricity, which is simply the movement of electrons.

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• Modern Solar PV cells, which are the building blocks of a
solar PV module or panel, are made from layers of
semiconductors such as silicon.
• Many solar PV cells are combined to create a solar PV module
or panel, these are in turn put together to create larger solar PV
arrays.

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• There are several common varieties of solar PV panels. The most
common is crystalline silicon. This is what we generally see on
rooftops and in utility scale applications.
• They are a mature technology and form about 80% of the market.
• Efficiency is typically between say, 15% and 20% and modules
typically about generate 150-250 watts of power.

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• The next most common are the Thin Film PV modules.
• These basically make up the remainder of the market and whilst the thin
film products are a mix of mature and developing technologies, their
efficiencies are generally lower than their crystalline silicon counterparts,
typically ranging between 8% and 12%.
• Because of this the modules generate less power, maybe 150 watts.

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• There are also more exotic varieties available, with researchers using
flexible plastic materials and organic dyes to develop solar PV cells for a
greater range of applications, such as attaching to building materials or
even to your clothing.
• This flexibility comes at the cost of reduced efficiency which is typically
less than 5%.

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• The last alternative is where we concentrate the power of sun by using
mirrors or reflective surfaces, and aiming it at very high efficiency but
high-cost solar cells. This version is known as concentrated solar PV, and it
can achieve efficiencies of up to 40%.
• It is required to constantly track the trajectory of the sun in order to
concentrate solar radiation onto the small solar cell.
• We need to remember that Concentrated Solar PV is not to be confused
with concentrated solar thermal, even though they have lots of similarities.

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 Generations of Solar PV

• The first generation contains solar cells that are relatively

expensive to produce.
• The second generation contains types of solar cells that have
an even lower efficiency, but are much cheaper to produce,
such that the cost per watt is lower than in first generation
cells.
• The term third generation is used about cells that are very
efficient. Most technologies in this generation are not yet
commercial, but there is a lot of research going on in this area.
The goal is to make third generation solar cells cheap to
produce.

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- First Generation
• Generally 1st generation’s solar cells include Single Crystal Solar Cells and
Multi Crystal Solar Cells.
• This are the oldest and the mostly common used technology type due to
high efficiencies.
• 1st generation solar cells are produced on wafers (‫)رﻗﺎﺋﻖ‬. Each wafer can
supply 2-3 watt power. To increase power, solar modules, which consist of
many cells, are used.
• The two types of first generation solar cells differ by their crystallization
levels. If the whole wafer is only one crystal, it is called single crystal solar
cell. If wafer consist of crystal grains, it is called multicrystal solar cell.
Anyone can see the boundaries between grains on the solar cell.
• Although efficiency of mono crystal solar cells is higher than multicrystal
solar cells, production of multicrystal wafer is easier and cheaper. So they
are competitive with monocrystals.

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- Second Generation

• The second generation solar cells include amorphous Si (a-Si) based thin
films solar cells, Cadmium Telluride/Cadmium Sulfide (CdTe/CdS) solar
cells and Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) solar cells.

• Their efficiencies are less than 1st generation, their costs are also less than
1st generation. In addition they have an advantage in visual aesthetic. Since
there are no fingers in front of the thin film solar cells for metallization,
they are much more applicable on windows, cars, building integrations etc.

• These thin films can also be grown on flexible substrates. As an advantage

of thin film solar cells, they can be growth on large areas up to 6 m2.
However wafer based solar cell can be only produced on wafer dimensions.

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- Third Generation
• These are the novel technologies which are promising but not commercially
proven yet. Most developed 3rd generation solar cell types are dye
sensitized and concentrated solar cell.

• Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are based on dye molecules between
electrodes. Electron hole pairs occur in dye molecules and transported
through TiO2 nanoparticles. Their production is easy with respect to other
technologies. Dye sensitized solar cells can have variable colors.

• Concentrated PV solar cell is another promising technology. Main principle

of concentrated cells is to concentrate large amount of solar radiation on to
a small region where the PV cell is located. The amount of semiconductor
material, which might be very expensive, is reduced in this way. In this
system a perfect optical system should be integrated. Concentration levels
starts from 10 sun to thousands suns. So, total cost can be lower than
conventional systems. CPVs are promising technologies for near future.

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Factors Affecting Solar PV Performance

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 Conversion Efficiency

• Remember that electrical efficiency means the ratio of

electricity out to the amount of incoming energy, which in this
case is solar energy.

• Well, let’s consider that we have an area of land that receives

about 800 Watts per square meter on average.

• If we cover that whole square meter with solar panels that have
an efficiency of about 10% then we will generate 80 watts of
electricity.

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 Sunlight Intensity

• The intensity of the available sunlight is another

important factor and effectively dictates the capacity
factor for solar PV.
• Essentially, the power coming out of a solar PV cell is in
direct proportion to the amount of sunlight that hits it.
• The more solar energy that hits the solar cell, the more
electrical current that will be generated.
• The efficiency of the solar PV cell is only minimally
affected by sunlight intensity, meaning that the ratio of
incoming photons that can get converted to electrons
doesn’t change.
• Rather a reduction in sunlight intensity just means that
there are fewer total photons coming in and so there are
proportionally fewer electrons being generated.

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 Shadow
• Shadowed panels produce little to no electricity. If this occurs on solar PV
arrays that are arranged in series, and by that we mean that the panels are
part of a long chain, then the shadowed panels will continue to carry
current generated by other panels, but with slightly increased resistance.

• This means that current will drop and to maintain the load, the voltage of
the non-shaded panels will correspondingly increase.

• But with increasing shade cover the overall voltage will drop below the
operating voltage and eventually the flow of electrons will fall to zero and
you will get no power from your panels.

• To avoid this we can use what is called a bypass diode, which allows the
current to bypass the shadowed panels exhibiting higher resistance, and
minimize the overall impact of shadows.

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 Temperature
• Temperature also has a significant effect on solar PV performance.

• As the temperature increases, solar PV cells actually become less efficient

and as the temperature decreases, solar PV cells become more efficient.
This leads to the situation where there is a trade off between sunlight
intensity and temperature.

• Solar PV in a region far from the equator, such as Europe, will receive less
sunlight, but it will convert that sunlight with greater efficiency, whilst the
opposite will occur for a region close to the equator.

• This is really only a problem in hot desert areas, which unfortunately also
corresponds with some of our best solar resources around.

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Solar PV Penetration

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• An important factor in the growth of solar PV around 2007 was
the implementation of various policy mechanisms to encourage
the growth of renewable energies by a critical number of
governments around the world.
• Some of the most prominent
policy mechanisms were what are
known as feed-in tariffs.
• Typically feed-in tariffs are long
term contracts for renewable
energy generators, offering price
certainty and a cost-based compensation structure, effectively
subsidizing technologies such as rooftop solar PV and utility
scale solar farms.
• These policies along with continual cost improvements
combined to create a boom in solar PV installations. 36
 Top Countries Generating Electricity by Solar PV
in 2016

China and the USA are interesting because despite having some of the highest installed
capacity the amount that solar PV contributed to the grid was only around the worldwide
average at about 1.8%. This shows that when assessing these numbers, it is important to
remember each country has its own energy demands.

For example, two other countries not mentioned are Honduras and Greece: whilst their total
Solar PV capacities are relatively low with 289 MW and 2.6 GW respectively, they have
managed to generate 12.5% and 7.4% of their electricity demand from solar PV.
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Carbon Accounting for Solar PV

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