Solar power

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

A solar PV array on a rooftop in Hong Kong

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

Potential of solar energy. The small black dots show land area required to replace the world primary energysupply with solar power.

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly usingconcentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect.^[1]

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 andIndia.^[2]

Photovoltaics were initially solely used as a source of electricity for small and medium-sized applications, from the calculatorpowered by a single solar cell to remote homes powered by an off-grid rooftop PV system. 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 harnessrenewable energy from the Sun.

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. Other large CSP plants include the SEGS (354 MW) in the Mojave Desert of California, the Solnova Solar Power Station (150 MW) and the Andasol solar power station (150 MW), both in Spain. The 579 MW Solar Star, in the United States, is the world's largest PV power station.