The amount of solar energy hitting the earth is huge, making it an ideal source of clean energy. In recent decades, solar energy utilization technology research and development, commercial production, market development and other aspects have achieved great progress.
The most common conversion and utilization of solar energy are solar heating and solar power generation.
Solar heating is the capture of the sun's radiant energy and use it as heat, such as a quick solar water heater in your home.
There are two main forms of solar power generation, namely photovoltaic power generation and thermal power generation.
1
The photoelectric conversion technology used for photovoltaic power generation is relatively mature and most widely used. It converts solar energy directly into electricity using the principle of photogenerating volt effect. Some of the blue photovoltaic panels we see on the roofs of buildings are based on this principle.
Principle of solar photovoltaic power generation
Photovoltaic effect occurs in both liquid and solid materials, but only solid (especially PN junction semiconductor devices) has higher photoelectric conversion efficiency under sunlight. The crystalline silicon solar cell is made by using the principle of photogenerating voltaic effect and can directly convert the solar energy into electric energy. The energy converter of solar photovoltaic power generation is solar cell, also known as photovoltaic cell, which is the foundation and core device of solar photovoltaic power generation system.
2
Photothermal power generation is the absorption of heat energy by solar collectors to heat water Wells to produce steam, and then the steam drives a turbine to drive a generator to generate electricity. The former process is photothermal conversion, and the latter is thermoelectric conversion.
The cost of solar power generation can be greatly reduced by using solar thermal power generation technology, which avoids the expensive silicon photoelectric conversion process.
In addition, this form of solar energy has the advantage that the water heated by the sun can be stored in huge containers that can still power turbines for hours after sunset.