What are photovoltaics and concentrated solar power?
Photovoltaics uses semiconductor materials to convert light directly into electricity by using the photoelectric effect—more specifically, the photovoltaic effect. Focusing lights onto a small cell using inexpensive lenses and mirrors requires far less area of photovoltaic detector material for the same collected energy. This reduces the cost of the photovoltaic material needed per energy collected and decreases the portion of the system cost attributed to photovoltaic (PV) cells. Highly efficient, more expensive cells can thus be used—which directly impact the system cost per watt of electricity generated. Since many of the materials used in PV cells are subject to large fluctuations in price, reducing the cell’s portion of the system cost also decreases the effects of supply-chain variability. Solar energy is used for both heat and electricity generation. Modern buildings are designed to take advantage of passive solar heating and/or cooling. The dominant solar energy generation tech
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