ENERGY 303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Solar Thermal Energy, Barstow, California, Photovoltaics
Document Summary
Biggest/most prominent: ivanpah solar plant (between barstow and las vegas: works but producing less energy than expected, commercial plant with 392 mw capacity. Mojave desert solar plant kills 6,000 birds a year. The working of photovoltaics the effect of the electric field in a pv cell: negative charge accumulates at top of p layer. Generating current from a pv cell: photons kick electrons from one side to another, generating an electric field, electrons flow back through wires, generating electrical current, photos must have sufficient energy to provide kick . Add conductors to top and bottom: reference picture. Assembling a generic pv cell: reference picture, whole thing about 0. 3 mm thick. Some utility-scale (>1 mw) pv installations in the western us: nellis afb, nevada, california valley solar. Utility-scale (>1mw) pv by state: california by far the leader, utility-scale means producing more than 1 megawatt. Growth of utility scale (> 1 mw) pv in california through 2015: growing rapidly since 1999.
