Photovoltaic power generation

As early as 1839, The French scientist Becqurel discovered that light can make a potential difference between different parts of a semiconductor material. This phenomenon came to be known as the photogenerating volt effect, or photovoltaic effect for short. In 1954, American scientists Chapin and Pierson in the United States Bell Laboratory for the first time made practical monoprystalline silicon solar cells, the birth of the solar energy conversion into electrical energy practical photovoltaic power generation technology.

Since the 1970s, with the development of modern industry, the global energy crisis and air pollution have become increasingly prominent. Traditional fuel energy is decreasing day by day, causing increasingly prominent harm to the environment. At the same time, about 2 billion people in the world do not have normal energy supply. At this time, the whole world has turned to renewable energy, hoping that renewable energy can change the energy structure of human beings and maintain long-term sustainable development.

Solar energy has become the focus of attention because of its unique advantages. Abundant solar radiation energy is an important energy source, which is inexhaustible, pollution-free, cheap and can be used freely by human beings. The energy of solar energy reaching the ground every second is as high as 800 megawatt hours. If 0.1 percent of the solar energy on the earth's surface is converted into electricity with a conversion rate of 5 percent, the annual power generation can reach 5.6×1012 kilowatt hours, equivalent to 40 times the energy consumption in the world. It is because of these unique advantages of solar energy, after the 1980s, the variety of solar cells is increasing, the application scope is increasingly broad, and the market scale is gradually expanding.

After the 1990s, photovoltaic power generation developed rapidly. By 2006, more than 10 megawatt photovoltaic power generation systems and 6 megawatt networked photovoltaic power stations had been built in the world. The United States is the first country to formulate the development plan of photovoltaic power generation. In 1997, the Million Roofs project was proposed. Japan launched the New Sunshine Program in 1992. By 2003, Japan accounted for 50% of the world's pv module production, and four of the world's top 10 manufacturers were in Japan. The new Renewable energy Law of Germany regulates the feed-in tariff of photovoltaic power generation, which greatly promotes the development of photovoltaic market and industry, making Germany become the country with the fastest development of photovoltaic power generation in the world after Japan. Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Finland and other countries have also made photovoltaic development plans, and invested heavily in technological development and accelerated industrialization.

The average annual growth rate of world pv modules between 1990 and 2005 was about 15%. In the late 1990s, development was even more rapid, with pv module production reaching 200 MW in 1999. The efficiency of commercial batteries has increased from 10 to 13 percent to 13 to 15 percent, and the production scale has grown from 1 to 5 mw/year to 5 to 25 MW/year, and is expanding to 50 or even 100 MW/year. The cost of pv module production falls below $3 / w.