Solaben solar power station. 3. 2010s

Solaben solar power station

Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), indirectly using concentrated solar power, or a combination. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to FOCUS a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect.Photovoltaics were initially solely used as source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications, from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system. Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s. The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world, located in the Mojave Desert of California. As the cost of solar electricity has fallen, the number of grid-connected solar PV systems has grown into the millions and utility-scale solar power stations with hundreds of megawatts are being built. Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive, low-carbon technology to harness renewable energy from the Sun. The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, in Qinghai, China. The International Energy Agency projected in 2014 that under its high renewables scenario, by 2050, solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power would contribute about 16 and 11 percent, respectively, of the worldwide electricity consumption, and solar would be the world’s largest source of electricity. Most solar installations would be in China and India. In 2017, solar power provided 1.7% of total worldwide electricity production, growing at 35% per annum. Go to Article

Solar power

Solar power

This article is about generation of electricity using solar energy. For other uses of solar energy, see Solar energy.

The first three concentrated solar power (CSP) units of Spain’s Solnova Solar Power Station in the foreground, with the PS10 and PS20 solar power towers in the background

This solar resource map provides a summary of the estimated solar energy available for power generation and other energy applications. It represents the average daily/yearly sum of electricity production from a 1 kW-peak grid-connected solar PV power plant covering the period from 1994/1999/2007 (depending on the geographical region) to 2015. Source: Global Solar Atlas]

Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), indirectly using concentrated solar power, or a combination. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to FOCUS a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. [1]

Photovoltaics were initially solely used as source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications, from the calculator powered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system. Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s. The 392 MW Ivanpah installation is the largest concentrating solar power plant in the world, located in the Mojave Desert of California.

As the cost of solar electricity has fallen, the number of grid-connected solar PV systems has grown into the millions and utility-scale solar power stations with hundreds of megawatts are being built. Solar PV is rapidly becoming an inexpensive, low-carbon technology to harness renewable energy from the Sun. The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is the 850 MW Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, in Qinghai, China.

The International Energy Agency projected in 2014 that under its high renewables scenario, by 2050, solar photovoltaics and concentrated solar power would contribute about 16 and 11 percent, respectively, of the worldwide electricity consumption, and solar would be the world’s largest source of electricity. Most solar installations would be in China and India. [2] In 2017, solar power provided 1.7% of total worldwide electricity production, growing at 35% per annum. [3]

Contents

• 1.1 Photovoltaics
• 1.2 Concentrated solar power
• 1.3 Hybrid systems

• 2.1 Early days
• 2.2 Mid-1990s to early 2010s
• 2.3 Current status
• 2.4 Forecasts
• 2.5 Photovoltaic power stations
• 2.6 Concentrating solar power stations

• 3.1 Cost

• 3.1.1 Levelized cost of electricity
• 3.1.2 Current installation prices

• 3.5.1 Rebates
• 3.5.2 Net metering
• 3.5.3 Feed-in tariffs (FIT)
• 3.5.4 Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs)

• 5.1 Greenhouse gases
• 5.2 Energy payback
• 5.3 Water use
• 5.4 Other issues

• 6.1 Concentrator photovoltaics
• 6.2 Floatovoltaics

Many industrialized nations have installed significant solar power capacity into their grids to supplement or provide an alternative to conventional energy sources while an increasing number of less developed nations have turned to solar to reduce dependence on expensive imported fuels (see solar power by country). Long distance transmission allows remote renewable energy resources to displace fossil fuel consumption. Solar power plants use one of two technologies:

• Photovoltaic (PV) systems use solar panels, either on rooftops or in ground-mounted solar farms, converting sunlight directly into electric power.
• Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrated solar thermal) plants use solar thermal energy to make steam, that is thereafter converted into electricity by a turbine.

Photovoltaics

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a device that converts light into electric current using the photovoltaic effect. The first solar cell was constructed by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. [5] The German industrialist Ernst Werner von Siemens was among those who recognized the importance of this discovery. [6] In 1931, the German engineer Bruno Lange developed a photo cell using silver selenide in place of copper oxide, [7] although the prototype selenium cells converted less than 1% of incident light into electricity. Following the work of Russell Ohl in the 1940s, researchers Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin created the silicon solar cell in 1954. [8] These early solar cells cost 286 USD/watt and reached efficiencies of 4.5–6%. [9]

The array of a photovoltaic power system, or PV system, produces direct current (DC) power which fluctuates with the sunlight’s intensity. For practical use this usually requires conversion to certain desired voltages or alternating current (AC), through the use of inverters. [4] Multiple solar cells are connected inside modules. Modules are wired together to form arrays, then tied to an inverter, which produces power at the desired voltage, and for AC, the desired frequency/phase. [4]

Many residential PV systems are connected to the grid wherever available, especially in developed countries with large markets. [10] 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. Such stand-alone power systems permit operations at night and at other times of limited sunlight.

Concentrated solar power

Concentrated solar power (CSP), also called concentrated solar thermal, uses lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to concentrate sunlight, then use the resulting heat to generate electricity from conventional steam-driven turbines.

A wide range of concentrating technologies exists: among the best known are the parabolic trough, the compact 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. [11] Thermal storage efficiently allows up to 24-hour electricity generation. [12]

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 along the focal points of the linear parabolic mirror and is filled with a working fluid. The reflector is made to follow the sun during daylight hours by tracking along a single axis. Parabolic trough systems provide the best land-use factor of any solar technology. [13] The SEGS plants in California and Acciona’s Nevada Solar One near Boulder City, Nevada are representatives of this technology. [14] [15]

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. [16] [17]

An Overview of Solar Harvesting Methods

“Solar power” can actually refer to several specific methods of energy capture. Solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaic cells are the two main solar power technologies. Here is an overview of these solar harvesting methods, as well as other terminology you may come across.

Solar Thermal Energy

Solar thermal energy represents a broad category of solar power that collects heat from the sun and uses this heat to increase the temperature of water or air, to aid in cooking and drying, or to concentrate the sun’s thermal energy in order to create electricity. Solar thermal energy is categorized by the temperature stored by the system.

Low-temperature solar thermal energy collectors are commonly used to heat buildings. The sun heats a “collector,” which also serves as the channel through which outside air passes into the building. The heat is transferred from the collector to the air as it passes through, thus heating the building.

Medium-temperature collectors are used to heat water, to dry lumber and food, to cook, and to purify drinking water. This is often an inexpensive and straightforward heating method, as the collector concentrates the sun’s heat and transfers it directly to the water, lumber or food. To purify drinking water using solar thermal energy, a simple distillation device is required in order to allow the water temperature to increase until evaporation, and then to allow the steam to cool back into liquid water in a separate chamber.

High-temperature collectors are the most sophisticated, and this method is also known as concentrated solar power. The collectors can be designed in several ways, including large reflective dishes, towers surrounded by reflective panels, or parabolic troughs. The heat is concentrated onto a single spot: for example, a dish will be designed so that sunlight bounces off of each area and onto a single reception point, or the panels surrounding a tower will all reflect the sun’s heat onto one specific reception point on the tower. These reception points can become incredibly hot. Temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Farenheit have been recorded. As a result, water is converted into steam, which powers an engine, which then produces electricity.

A unique example of a high-temperature solar thermal energy collector is a solar evaporation pond. Solar evaporation ponds are shallow pools of water in which a difference in salt content is naturally maintained between the bottom and top halves of the pool: the bottom layer of water has a higher salt content than the top layer, and the two rarely mix. This characteristic is key to the success of a solar evaporation pond, because it prevents heat from rising from the bottom of the pond to the top. Therefore, heat is trapped in the bottom of the pond and can be used to generate steam and, thus, electricity.

Small-scale solar concentrators can be used to power your home, but solar thermal energy stations require large, contiguous spaces of land that receive minimal Cloud cover. Spain, Australia and the U.S. currently have the most and the largest solar thermal power stations.

Solar Photovoltaic Cells

Solar photovoltaic (PV) cells somewhat mimic the natural process of photosynthesis, which takes place inside a plant’s chloroplast cells.

PV cells are made of materials, like silicon, that naturally form strong electrical bonds. However, because an electrical current is only created when these bonds are disrupted, chemical impurities are added to the silicon to make it less stable.

When photons (light particles) interact with a PV cell, they are able to essentially rearrange the chemical bonds slightly, thus displacing electrons. PV cells are designed to have a clear electrical gradient (a negatively charged side and a positively charged side) in order to usher these electrons together. It is this flow of electrons that makes an electric current.

Solar photovoltaic cells are more likely to be used to produce electricity on a smaller scale than solar thermal, making it possible to mount one or two onto your roof. Like solar thermal energy, solar photovoltaic cells can be set up on large tracts of land in order to produce enormous amounts of energy all at once, so they are another viable option for commercially-available and cleanly-generated electricity.

Passive Solar

It’s also important to mention passive solar during our discussion of solar power. Both solar thermal energy and solar photovoltaic cells are known as “active” solar energy systems. In other words, the collecting dishes that concentrate the sun’s heat or the PV cells that manipulate the sun’s energy outputs are both enhancing the effect of the sun to our advantage.

Notable Solar Power Plants to Date

The good news is that the record for being the largest solar power plant is constantly being broken year after year. In fact, Morocco is currently building a solar thermal energy station that will claim the title, at least for a while.

A few countries are known to have an impressive number of megawatts generated by solar power, or to have the largest arrays in the world. Here’s a quick look at the world’s current solar superstars:

U.S.

The southwestern region of the U.S. is home to most of the country’s solar power stations. This region not only has the most sun exposure, but also is mostly desert, making it the perfect space to build sprawling power stations out of the way. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in San Bernardino County, CA is the country’s largest solar thermal power station, producing 392 MW of energy. The country’s largest solar PV power station, Solar Star, is located nearby in Rosamond, CA and produces 579 MW.

Spain

Spain receives exceptional sun exposure, more so than most other European countries. The southern region of Spain is riddled with solar power stations, and the country boasts the largest number of solar thermal energy stations in the world, with dozens more planned. The largest of Spain’s thermal stations is the Solaben Solar Power Station, a parabolic trough design that produces 200 MW of energy and is the sixth largest in the world (only the U.S. has larger thermal stations). Its largest PV station, Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park, was the largest in the world when it was built in 2008, but its size has since been surpassed by stations in a dozen other countries.

India

India currently boasts the world’s largest solar PV power station, the Charanka Solar Park. It was built in 2012, uses thin-film technology, involves projects by more than 19 different developers and has a capacity of 600 MW. India’s largest solar thermal power plant is a modest size, on a global scale, at 50 MW and is known as Godawari Green Energy Limited.

Germany

Germany has a handful of solar PV power stations that rank among the largest in the world, including Solarpark Meuro, Neuhardenberg Solar Park and Templin Solar Park, as well as a couple of solar thermal energy stations. However, Germany’s total solar power production tops any other country in the world, with over 35 GW capable of being produced by both commercial and residential solar power systems. In comparison, the U.S. has a capacity of around 19 GW produced by solar.

And finally, speaking of notable power plants, who says solar power stations have to be an eyesore? A modest PV power station in New Caledonia certainly proves otherwise, as its panels are arranged in the shape of a shiny heart on a backdrop of lush green grass.

The Future of Solar Power

We’ve seen how solar power is quickly replacing the need for coal-fired power plants around the world and even how homeowners can use solar power to replace natural gas water heaters. These are just two of the many exciting innovations in solar technology that we can expect in the next few years.

Transportation Industry and Solar Power

Transportation represents another major energy niche in which solar power is currently but a minor player. Can solar power really compete with diesel and gas-powered vehicles? Perhaps not directly, but with the rising popularity of electric vehicles, solar can play a part by providing the electricity used to charge such cars.

While it’s projected that diesel will continue to be used as the fuel of choice, at least for a while, by many in the trucking industry, solar power is not entirely out of the question. One company in particular is designing solar panels that will charge a truck’s battery, which is a huge benefit to drivers with refrigeration units. Known as SolarFlex panels, these PV cells are easily installed onto the roof of the cab with a simple adhesive.

Solar Panel Windows and Solar Roadways

Why relegate solar panels to rooftops and vast tracts of desert land? Virtually any surface that the sun touches could be transformed into an energy-producing gadget, which would hasten the world’s transition to clean energy. That’s the idea behind two exciting new innovations in solar technology: solar panel Windows and solar roadways.

The solar panel Windows are transparent, allowing them to perform as a window pane and as a solar energy harvester and allowing you to get the most out of your home’s sun exposure. Solar roadways is an exciting project still in development, but the tough panels promise more than just energy production, including customizable lighted patterns, heated roadways, improved repair times and excellent traction.

Solar technology is a rapidly progressing industry, and advancements are made every single year. It won’t be long before we all can benefit from clean and inexpensive electric power generated by the sun.

Post Title

The CSP industry is going global in an unprecedented rate and there is no way to understand it by confining its development it to one market only. Make no mistake, despite the difficult times, the industry will persevere through the challenging times ahead but the companies that do not adapt to its changing nature will not.

Beln Gallego | CSP Today

If you want to have an accurate description of the CSP industry worldwide today, first you must forget everything that you might have read about it over the past few months.

I am not telling you anything you don´t already know: industries have globalized. They have evolved from the traditional industrial development we have witnessed over the past few decades and are now globalizing rapidly. It is relatively easy to observe this phenomenon in the solar industry, especially in the CSP sector.

The reason is simple – we are a young industry with to-be-expected growing pains, but we are also expected to compete at a global level. In fact,the strength of the industry comes from its globally diversified nature. For you, this means that taking the international business model approach is the only possibility if you want to increase market share. Adaptability to new markets and its idiosyncrasies is the key to your success. For that, you have to understand and learn the rules of the game to win.

Historical Perspective

CSP has been commercially deployed since the early 80´s in the SEGS plants in California. The plants are still there today, producing energy long after their financial payback time came to an end. They are producing free electricity 30 years on.

Still, the CSP industry has had a long break since the original SEGS were constructed (give date?). The hiatus lasted about 20 years and. other than governmental RD developments happening during that time. In a relatively short period of time from 2006 we have seen an industry reborn and thriving with the feed in tariffs in Spain and loan guarantees in USA. It further took a huge scale turn with the governments of India, South Africa, Australia and the MENA region (to name but a few) taking the technology to a brand new level of adaptability to new markets. And this is only the beginning of a long road for a very adaptable industry.

From 2006 we have achieved very remarkable cornerstones, including the first plant in the world with the ability to operate 24 hours, a storage technology that can be scaled, the construction of CSP plants of an unprecedented scale (280MW) and the emergence of innovative technologies (namely towers and Fresnel) deployed into the hundreds of MW. That is a lot to achieve in just 5 years – but this is just the beginning. With so many markets working synchronously the real leapfrog developments will happen in the newer markets.

The CSP Market as it stands

CSP’s current installed and operating capacity is just shy of 2 GW which will be achieved in the coming months as plants under construction are finalized and commissioned.

As the CSP sector changes rapidly it is required to adapt to the emergence of new markets whilst gaining prevalence over the so far dominant but currently challenged Spanish and U.S. markets, due to feed-in tariff discontinuation and to the abundant and cheap shale gas for example.

Today there are more than 60 utility-scale CSP operating plants worldwide and 1.8GW of installed capacity. Distributed over 9 different markets, it is Spain (1.2 GW) and the U.S. (500 MW) which still dominate the CSP landscape, accounting for 95% of the total installed capacity. This dominance is likely to change as the plants under construction get commissioned and new regulatory frameworks are revealed, and government support of some markets gets clarified.

Emerging markets such as India, South Africa, Morocco and Saudi Arabia will therefore play a vital role in the growth and sustenance of the CSP industry. Others countries have also shown interest towards CSP and may contribute to its market expansion. Last year alone, almost 500 MW of new capacity was deployed, a record year to date in the history of the CSP industry, and in the future capacity will increasingly be coming from emerging markets

In Spain, most of the yet to be commissioned projects will be connected in 2012, while the larger projects in the U.S. will require longer construction periods and will be online during 2013-2014. When the current plants under construction are completed, Spain will remain the largest CSP market with 2.2 GW closely followed by U.S. with 1.8 GW.

However a clear internationalization trend emerges when observing the charts of Operating CSP Capacity and CSP capacity under construction. From the operating chart a total of 89.6MW (Excluding Germany) are in operation outside of the main markets of Spain and the US. However this jumps up to 782.7MW that are in construction outside of the 2 main markets. That is more than 800% increase on installed capacity in the new markets. If you consider the planned capacity above and beyond the capacity in construction, the percentage will likely be higher but some of the projects in the pipeline may not be completed.

Operating CSP Capacity (Q1 2012)

CSP Capacity Under Construction (Q1 2012)

The future trends are increasingly pointing towards a much more internationalized industry with several projects under construction in other promising new markets. The table below details the extent of development of each geographical market including currently operational, in construction and proposed plants. The CSP Today Conservative Prediction of Global Installed CSP Capacity chart exemplifies how in a few short years emerging CSP markets will equal the amount that the main markets will contribute towards the global CSP market.

This trend also has interesting ramifications. For example, the industry is starting to indigenize very heavily in countries such as India. As own local technologies are been researched and deployed, the industry in emerging markets will become increasingly open and the hold of a limited number of experienced companies and suppliers will loosen. As many as 8 tube receiver manufacturers are springing up in China for example, and Fresnel technologies are going big scale in India and Australia. The game is changing.

The key to success in emerging markets is to understand what the need for CSP technology is and adapt to it. Here is where your company has to take a conscious decision to adapt to succeed. Think about CSP plants as if they were cars – I call it the Rolls-Royce theorem. they might be the best cars in the word from the engineering perspective but that doesn’t mean that they are what you, as a user, need. You might need a cheaper car or a more efficient one. One size DOES NOT Fit all. Understanding this will make all the difference. And as our prediction shows, emerging markets will account for 50% and onwards of the global CSP market so there is a lot at play still.

CSP Today Conservative Prediction of Global Installed CSP Capacity

Some of the exciting international projects that are opening up new markets are also requiring adaptation to their particular conditions from the outset. For example, Fresnel technology is increasing heavily used due to lower costs of deployment (more on that in the technology analysis section). Also, there will be increasingly more integrated solar combined cycles in which CSP will be appended to existing coal and gas stations. A few examples from the some of the most promising CSP world markets:

Grid Integration

Construction of the Salt Tanks which provide efficient thermal energy storage [72] so that output can be provided after sunset, and output can be scheduled to meet demand requirements. [73] The 280 MW Solana Generating Station is designed to provide six hours of energy storage. This allows the plant to generate about 38% of its rated capacity over the course of a year. [74] https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1871199

Thermal energy storage. The Andasol CSP plant uses tanks of molten salt to store solar energy. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1914538

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH). This facility in Geesthacht, Germany, also includes a solar array. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1852395

The overwhelming majority of electricity produced worldwide is used immediately because traditional generators can adapt to demand and storage is usually more expensive. Both solar power and wind power are sources of variable renewable power, meaning that all available output must be used locally, carried on transmission lines elsewhere to be used, or stored (e.g. in a battery). Since solar energy is not available at night, storing its energy is potentially an important issue particularly in off-grid and for future 100% renewable energy scenarios to have continuous electricity availability. [75]

Solar electricity is inherently variable but somewhat predictable by time of day, location, and seasons. Solar is intermittent due to day/night cycles and unpredictable weather. How much of a special challenge solar power is in any given electric utility varies significantly. In places with hot summers and mild winters, solar is well matched to daytime cooling demands. [76]

In an electricity system without grid energy storage, generation from stored fuels (coal, biomass, natural gas, nuclear) must go up and down in reaction to the rise and fall of solar electricity (see load following power plant). While hydroelectric and natural gas plants can quickly respond to changes in load, coal, biomass and nuclear plants usually take considerable time to respond to load and can only be scheduled to follow the predictable variation. Depending on local circumstances, beyond about 20–40% of total generation, grid-connected intermittent sources like solar tend to require investment in some combination of grid interconnections, energy storage or demand side management. Integrating large amounts of solar power with existing generation equipment has caused issues in some cases. For example, in Germany, California and Hawaii, electricity have been known to go negative when solar is generating a lot of power. [77] [78]

Conventional hydroelectric dams work very well in conjunction with solar power; water can be held back or released from a reservoir as required. Where suitable geography is not available, pumped-storage hydroelectricity can use solar power to pump water to a high reservoir on sunny days, then the energy is recovered at night and in bad weather by releasing water via a hydroelectric plant to a low reservoir where the cycle can begin again. [79] This cycle can lose 20% of the energy to round trip inefficiencies, this plus the construction costs add to the expense of implementing high levels of solar power.

Concentrated solar power plants may use thermal storage to store solar energy, such as in high-temperature molten salts. These 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. This method of energy storage is used, for example, by the Solar Two power station, allowing it to store 1.44 TJ in its 68 m 3 storage tank, enough to provide full output for close to 39 hours, with an efficiency of about 99%. [80]

In stand alone PV systems batteries are traditionally used to store excess electricity. With grid-connected photovoltaic power system, excess electricity can be sent to the electrical grid. Net metering and feed-in tariff programs give these systems a credit for the electricity they produce. This credit offsets electricity provided from the grid when the system cannot meet demand, effectively trading with the grid instead of storing excess electricity. Credits are normally rolled over from month to month and any remaining surplus settled annually. [81] When wind and solar are a small fraction of the grid power, other generation techniques can adjust their output appropriately, but as these forms of variable power grow, additional balance on the grid is needed. As are rapidly declining, PV systems increasingly use rechargeable batteries to store a surplus to be later used at night. Batteries used for grid-storage can stabilize the electrical grid by leveling out peak loads for around an hour or more. In the future, less expensive batteries could play an important role on the electrical grid, as they can charge during periods when generation exceeds demand and feed their stored energy into the grid when demand is higher than generation.

Environmental Effects

Part of the Senftenberg Solarpark, a solar photovoltaic power plant located on former open-pit mining areas close to the city of Senftenberg, in Eastern Germany. The 78 MW Phase 1 of the plant was completed within three months. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1775088

Concentrated solar power may use much more water than gas-fired power. [88] Unlike fossil fuel based technologies, solar power does not lead to any harmful emissions during operation, but the production of the panels leads to some amount of pollution.

5.1. Greenhouse Gases

The life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of solar power are less than 50 gram (g) per kilowatt-hour (kWh). [89] Whereas (without carbon capture and storage) a combined cycle gas-fired power plant emits around 500 g/kWh, and a coal-fired power plant about 1000 g/kWh. [90]

The most critical parameter is the solar insolation of the site: GHG emissions factors for PV solar are inversely proportional to insolation. [91] Similar to all energy sources where their total life cycle emissions are mostly from construction, the switch to low carbon power in the manufacturing and transportation of solar devices would further reduce carbon emissions.

5.2. Land Use

Life-cycle surface power density of solar power is estimated at 6.63 W/m2 which is two orders of magnitude less than fossil fuels and nuclear power. [92] As result, PV requires much larger amounts of land surface to produce the same nominal amount of energy as sources with higher surface power density and capacity factor. According to a 2021 study obtaining 80% from PV by 2050 would require up to 2.8% of total landmass in European Union and up to 5% in countries like Japan and South Korea. Occupation of such large areas for PV farms would be likely to drive residential opposition as well as lead to deforestation, removal of vegetation and conversion of farm land. [93] However these countries are very unlikely to need 80% from PV on their own land, as they have other low-carbon power such as offshore wind [94] [95] [96] and may also import solar power from sparsely populated countries. [97] Worldwide land use has minimal ecological impact. [98]

Utility-scale photovoltaic farms use vast amount of space due to relatively low surface power density and occasionally face opposition from local residents, especially in countries with high population density or when the installation involves removal of existing trees or shrubs. Construction of Cleve Hill Solar Park in Kent (United Kingdom ) composed of 880,000 panels up to 3.9 m high on 490 hectares of land [99] faced opposition on the grounds of destroying the local landscape. [100] The solar farm divided Greenpeace (which opposed) and Friends of the Earth (which supported it). [101] Similar concerns about deforestation were raised when large amounts of trees were removed for installation of solar farms in New Jersey [102] and others. [103]

5.3. Manufacturing and Recycling

One issue that has often raised concerns is the use of cadmium (Cd), a toxic heavy metal that has the tendency to accumulate in ecological food chains. It is used as semiconductor component in CdTe solar cells and as a buffer layer for certain CIGS cells in the form of cadmium sulfide. [104] The amount of cadmium used in thin-film solar cells is relatively small (5–10 g/m 2 ) and with proper recycling and emission control techniques in place the cadmium emissions from module production can be almost zero. Current PV technologies lead to cadmium emissions of 0.3–0.9 microgram/kWh over the whole life-cycle. [89] Most of these emissions arise through the use of coal power for the manufacturing of the modules, and coal and lignite combustion leads to much higher emissions of cadmium. Life-cycle cadmium emissions from coal is 3.1 microgram/kWh, lignite 6.2, and natural gas 0.2 microgram/kWh.

In a life-cycle analysis it has been noted, that if electricity produced by photovoltaic panels were used to manufacture the modules instead of electricity from burning coal, cadmium emissions from coal power usage in the manufacturing process could be eliminated. [105]

In the case of crystalline silicon modules, the solder material, that joins the copper strings of the cells, contains about 36 percent of lead (Pb). over, the paste used for screen printing front and back contacts contains traces of Pb and sometimes Cd as well. It is estimated that about 1,000 metric tonnes of Pb have been used for 100 gigawatts of c-Si solar modules. However, there is no fundamental need for lead in the solder alloy. [104]

Manufacturing of solar panels requires rare-earth elements, producing low-level radioactive waste during the mining process.

International Energy Agency study projects the demand for mined resources such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, copper, nickel and rare earths will rise 4x by 2040 and notes insufficient supply of these materials to match demand imposed by expected large-scale deployments of decentralized technologies solar and wind power, and required grid upgrades. [106] [107] According to a 2018 study significant increase of PV solar power would require 3000% increase in supply of these metals by 2060, thermal solar — 6000%, requiring significant increase in mining operations. [108]

Political Issues

Majority of the PV panels is manufactured in China using silicon sourced from one particular region of Xinjiang, which raises concerns about human rights violations (Xinjang internment camps) as well as supply chain dependency. [109]

In the United States, performance based incentives are being used instead of upfront incentives to increase the confidence and results of the use of solar power, but in Germany there is a reduction of the FIT (feed in tariff) levels, which has caused a decrease in the money spent towards solar energy. [110]

FIT is a policy that helped encourage faster development and use of solar energy, making Germany and Italy the leaders in the current solar energy market. FIT that encourages the faster development and use of solar energy, it does not currently subsidize up front costs. [111]

Emerging Technologies

7.1. Concentrator Photovoltaics

CPV modules on dual axis solar trackers in Golmud, China. https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?curid=1454985

Concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) systems employ sunlight concentrated onto photovoltaic surfaces for the purpose of electrical power production. Contrary to conventional photovoltaic systems, it uses lenses and curved mirrors to FOCUS sunlight onto small, but highly efficient, multi-junction solar cells. Solar concentrators of all varieties may be used, and these are often mounted on a solar tracker in order to keep the focal point upon the cell as the sun moves across the sky. [112] Luminescent solar concentrators (when combined with a PV-solar cell) can also be regarded as a CPV system. Concentrated photovoltaics are useful as they can improve efficiency of PV-solar panels drastically. [113]

In addition, most solar panels on spacecraft are also made of high efficient multi-junction photovoltaic cells to derive electricity from sunlight when operating in the inner Solar System.

7.2. Floatovoltaics

Floatovoltaics are an emerging form of PV systems that float on the surface of irrigation canals, water reservoirs, quarry lakes, and tailing ponds. Several systems exist in France, India, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. [114] [115] [116] [117] These systems reduce the need of valuable land area, save drinking water that would otherwise be lost through evaporation, and show a higher efficiency of solar energy conversion, as the panels are kept at a cooler temperature than they would be on land. [118] Although not floating, other dual-use facilities with solar power include fisheries. [119]

7.3. Solar Updraft Tower

The solar updraft tower (SUT) is a design concept for a renewable-energy power plant for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat. Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very tall chimney tower. The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by the chimney effect. This airflow drives wind turbines, placed in the chimney updraft or around the chimney base, to produce electricity. As of mid 2018, although several prototype models have been built, no full-scale practical units are in operation. Scaled-up versions of demonstration models are planned to generate significant power. They may also allow development of other applications, such as to agriculture or horticulture, to water extraction or distillation, or to improvement of urban air pollution.

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