Seite - 95 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

© 2019 The Author. This is an Open Access book chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits copying and redistribution for non-commercial purposes with no derivatives, provided the original work is properly cited (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). This does not affect the rights licensed or assigned from any third party in this book. The chapter is from the book Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid, Gustaf Olsson (Author). doi: 10.2166/9781780409443_0095 Chapter 8 Solar PV “Solar power is a safe form of nuclear energy. We are using fusion reactions  that are 150 million km away to make light that we then  convert  to  electricity with photovoltaic modules.” Professor Sean White (2016). The end user of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system does not need to know any details of the technology to convert sunlight to electric power. It is sufficient to know that a certain number of solar cells will produce a certain amount of electric power. However, it may be useful to have some background knowledge about the solar technology to estimate what can be expected in terms of both productivity and potential problems. In Chapter 8.1 the fundamental properties of sunlight and its influence on solar panels are described. Characteristic parameters of solar cells are explained in 8.2. Solar cell technology – how sunlight is converted to electricity – is briefly explained in 8.3. It is important to realise the importance of solar cell efficiency. Solar cell temperature is a key parameter determining efficiency. Solar cells are combined into systems, as described in 8.4. The solar PV energy potential for various Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user