Are there any other types of solar other than photovoltaic?

The most common type of solar, and the one you are most likely to see on roofs around your suburb, is photovoltaic, or solar PV. But solar PV is not the only type of system that can be used to transfer the sun’s energy into electricity.

There are several types of power generation methods being researched and developed but the most tried and tested methods are Concentrated Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal and Solar Ponds.

Concentrated PV

Concentrated PV works on the same premise as normal PV however it involves using mirrors to reflect rays onto either a solar cell or a solar tower.  This concentrates more rays onto the same solar cell than what would be acquired through using a flat PV module.

Solar Thermal

Solar Thermal again uses the technology of flat panel collectors however it uses these to heat water to produce high pressure steam. This steam then moves a turbine that generates an electrical current through a generator.

Solar Ponds

Solar ponds differ from the PV, Concentrated PV and Solar Thermal which all use some form of collector. They instead use salt-water lakes lined with black plastic. The plastic acts as an absorber of the solar radiation. The top of the lake is maintained with fresh water while the denser salt water collects at the bottom of the pond. Combined with the solar radiation, the dense salt water can increase up to temperatures of 85-90°C, thus creating steam to drive a turbine and again create an electrical current through a generator.

Each of these are developing technologies and therefore have their own challenges, further emphasising that PV is the best proven technology so far on the market

Tags: Photovoltaic

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under solar power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.