This book focuses on the latest research and developments in photovoltaic (PV) power plants, and provides extensive coverage of fundamental theories, current research and developmental activities, and new approaches intended to overcome a number of critical limitations in today’s grid integration technologies. The design and implementation process for large-scale solar PV power plants is introduced. The content provided will actively support the development of future renewable power plants and smart grid applications. The book will be of interest to researchers, professionals and graduate students in electrical and electronics fields seeking to understand the related technologies involved in PV power plants.

This book discusses control and optimization techniques in the broadest sense, covering new theoretical results and the applications of newly developed methods for PV systems. Going beyond classical control techniques, it promotes the use of more efficient control and optimization strategies based on linearized models and purely continuous (or discrete) models. These new strategies not only enhance the performance of the PV systems, but also decrease the cost per kilowatt-hour generated.

After decades of research and development, concentrating solar thermal (CST) power plants (also known as concentrating solar power (CSP) and as Solar Thermal Electricity or STE systems) are now starting to be widely commercialized. Indeed, the IEA predicts that by 2050, with sufficient support over ten percent of global electricity could be produced by concentrating solar thermal power plants. However, CSP plants are just but one of the many possible applications of CST systems. Advances in Concentrating Solar Thermal Research and Technology provides detailed information on the latest advances in CST systems research and technology. It promotes a deep understanding of the challenges the different CST technologies are confronted with, of the research that is taking place worldwide to address those challenges, and of the impact that the innovation that this research is fostering could have on the emergence of new CST components and concepts. It is anticipated that these developments will substantially increase the cost-competiveness of commercial CST solutions and reshape the technological landscape of both CST technologies and the CST industry. After an introductory chapter, the next three parts of the book focus on key CST plant components, from mirrors and receivers to thermal storage. The final two parts of the book address operation and control and innovative CST system concepts. - Contains authoritative reviews of CST research taking place around the world - Discusses the impact this research is fostering on the emergence of new CST components and concepts that will substantially increase the cost-competitiveness of CST power - Covers both major CST plant components and system-wide issues

This book contains selected and peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Conference on Efficient Solar Power Generation and Energy Harvesting (ESPGEH 2019). The primary focus of the book is on latest advances and scientific developments in the field of solar energy. The book covers various topics such as solar photovoltaics, solar energy harvesting, smart materials for energy applications, hybrid renewable energy plant, and on-grid and off-grid power plant. The book also discusses current techniques to produce energy-efficient solar cells, emerging materials and processes to develop cost-effective solar cells, and different issues in energy management. Given the scope of the contents, this book will be of interest for researchers, professionals as well as policy makers.

The present book focuses on recent advances methods and applications in photovoltaic (PV) systems. The book is divided into two parts: the first part deals with some theoretical, simulation and experiments on solar cells, including efficiency improvement, new materials and behavior performances. While the second part of the book devoted mainly on the application of advanced methods in PV systems, including advanced control, FPGA implementation, output power forecasting based artificial intelligence technique (AI), high PV penetration, reconfigurable PV architectures and fault detection and diagnosis based AI. The authors of the book trying to show to readers more details about some theoretical methods and applications in solar cells and PV systems (eg. advanced algorithms for control, optimization, power forecasting, monitoring and fault diagnosis methods). The applications are mainly carried out in different laboratories and location around the world as projects (Algeria, KSA, Turkey, Morocco, Italy and France). The book will be addressed to scientists, academics, researchers and PhD students working in this topic. The book will help readers to understand some applications including control, forecasting, monitoring, fault diagnosis of photovoltaic plants, as well as in solar cells such as behavior performances and efficiency improvement. It could be also be used as a reference and help industry sectors interested by prototype development.

This study presents options to fully unlock the world’s vast solar PV potential over the period until 2050. It builds on IRENA’s global roadmap to scale up renewables and meet climate goals.

Solar power has become big business, with $131 billion invested in 2018, up from just $11.2 billion in 2004 but down from $171 billion in 2017 as unit costs fell. New installed capacity grew from 1.1GW in 2004 to about 107GW in 2018, a steady rise as solar begins to compete with fossil fuels on cost and to be built in nearly every country.This is a book for the solar workers of the future, a business book for those without a business or economics background and those simply curious about major shifts happening in the world energy economy. Key financial, economic and technical concepts are interspersed with the history of the first decade of cheap solar power, and the author's experience of being part of a successful startup in the clean energy sector.