What Are Photovoltaics?
Photovoltaics is the field of technology concerned with the use of solar panels to provide energy. Photovoltaics has recently gained popularity because of a growing desire for clean and renewable energy. Solar panels work by converting the ultraviolet (UV) radiation in sunlight to electricity and produce no emissions. Sunlight is also a virtually endless resource, unlike fossil fuels. In photovoltaics, solar cells made of silicon or other semiconducting materials are arranged into larger photovoltaic modules or panels, which in turn are combined in even larger photovoltaic arrays. Solar cells absorb the energy from sunlight, and electrons become detached from their atoms in the process. The electrons are then used to produce electricity. Photovoltaic arrays are often designed to cover otherwise unused areas exposed to a lot of sunlight, such as rooftops or large stretches of unused land, like a desert. Sometimes, photovoltaic arrays are designed to capture the maximum amount of sunligh
Renewable Energy by: Guest Writer J. Peter Lynch December 17,2003 Photovoltaics (PV) or Solar Cells as its name implies is a technology that converts sunlight directly into electricity: photo = light and voltaic = electricity. Photovoltaics or solar cells are beginning to show up in many places. The power source for emergency phones on highways (PV is the little module on the top of the pole), wristwatches, and desktop calculators, yard lights and increasingly on the rooftops of homes and buildings. Current Electric Grid – Design is antiquated and a new model is needed The current national electrical system relies upon a few very large centralized generating plants feeding power over long distances to where the power is needed. The key to secure, reliable, flexible and resilient energy generation is an electricity grid, which is based upon a distributed model versus a centralized model. This model would consist of thousands of smaller power generation units producing power close to the
