Article | REF: D3935 V2

Photovoltaic electricity and energy transition: From sunlight to PV generator

Author: Stéphan ASTIER

Publication date: September 10, 2021

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


Overview

Français

ABSTRACT

Photovoltaic solar electricity, by virtue of its specific properties, is an essential contributor in an oncoming energy transition: re-founding our energy system on renewable energies of solar origin, the only low-entropy energy source outside the Earth. Using solar radiation, this electricity is used to supply large power grids, as well as micro-grids and remote sites. And associated with storage, batteries or hydrogen, it contributes to supply autonomous and mobile systems. This two parts article presents the main physical properties of photovoltaic electricity, relating them to this complex socio-technical context in which the engineer must develop optimal solutions for the design and / or operation of photovoltaic systems in all their diversity.

Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.

Read the article

AUTHOR

 INTRODUCTION

The scientific observation that our modern development is profoundly disrupting several planetary balances, particularly biodiversity and climate, has a profound impact on the current global context and points to the need for a transition to a more sustainable development model. The energy sector, fundamental to all forms of development, is a major contributor to this global disruption. Confronted with the climate emergency that has now gained consensus since the Paris Agreement adopted in December 2015, humanity has high expectations of an "energy transition" that effectively meets these challenges.

Against this backdrop, photovoltaic solar power is a key technology in the ongoing realization of an age-old utopia: to rebuild the energy supply of human societies, like the food chains of life on Earth, on the only low-entropy energy source outside the Earth: the Sun. In this remarkable thermo-dynamic situation, several renewable energy sources of solar origin with very high potential are called upon: solar radiation, wind power on land and at sea, hydropower, biomass, etc. Photovoltaic electricity makes it possible to generate electricity from the sun's rays. Photovoltaic electricity makes direct use of the most important of these energy potentials, solar radiation, and has taken the lead in terms of new installed capacity. It can supply large public electricity grids as well as micro-grids and isolated sites. When combined with electrochemical storage - batteries or green hydrogen and power-to-gas, which are also the focus of major global programs - it can compensate for daily intermittency and seasonal variations in sunlight, as well as indirectly meeting the needs of autonomous and mobile systems. But, like any technology, it is not without environmental impact: densifying the energy provided by solar radiation requires large collector surfaces and the mobilization of significant mineral resources, which are exhaustible if not recycled. The aim of this article is to present these elements and the physical properties of photovoltaic electricity in a unified way, by placing them precisely in the above-mentioned socio-technical context of transition, with the aim of providing engineers with a set of scientific and technical elements enabling them to develop relevant solutions for the design and/or operation of photovoltaic systems in all their diversity.

In this document, we begin with an analysis of the energy transition, including the thermodynamic situation of the Sun-Earth system; this serves as a framework to which we can explicitly relate one or more of the physical properties specific to photovoltaics, as presented later. Next, the properties of solar radiation and the principles of photovoltaic conversion are described, along with the technological devices...

You do not have access to this resource.

Exclusive to subscribers. 97% yet to be discovered!

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base, with over 1,200 authors and 100 scientific advisors
+ More than 10,000 articles and 1,000 how-to sheets, over 800 new or updated articles every year
From design to prototyping, right through to industrialization, the reference for securing the development of your industrial projects

This article is included in

Conversion of electrical energy

This offer includes:

Knowledge Base

Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees

Services

A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources

Practical Path

Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills

Doc & Quiz

Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading

Subscribe now!

Ongoing reading
Photovoltaic electricity and energy transition