Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Status Report on Solar Energy
Technologies
2.1 Introduction
The energy radiated from the sun is equivalent to a million billion
100GWpowerstations.PartofthisenergyreachestheplanetEarth
at a rate of
1kWm
−
2
, but technology has succeeded in tapping
only a tiny fraction of this energy to date. The sunlight falling on
Earth consists of ultraviolet (UV), visible, and infrared (IR) (heat)
radiation, and all renewable energy sources (hydro, wind, waves,
biomass, etc.) arise due to the primary solar energy.
The PV effect was discovered by a French scientist, Edmund
Becquerel, in 1839, when he was 19 years old. Edmund may have
learned this subject area from watching his father, Cesar, known as
the grandfather of electrochemistry, working with electrodes and
electrolytes in his laboratory (Fig. 2.1).
Although the PV effect was discovered in 1839, considerable
effort was not devoted to developing this until the 1950s. As
an energy conversion method, the use of PV technology was not
considered during the industrial revolution, with cheap coal and oil
being available, and the future damage to the environment was not
