Clean Energy Production Using Solar Energy Resources

Abstract

Recently, a huge gap has been drawn between demand and supply of energy due to exorbitant consumption of conventional fuels which are not only in finite quantity on this globe but also adversely affecting the environment as a consequence of water and air pollution at large scale. Due to this reason, many researchers and scientists are focused in searching some renewable sources of energy as alternatives such as solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, ocean energy, etc. Among all of them, solar energy is recognized as the topmost renewable source as it is available free of cost and can be converted into useful variants of energy via many conversion techniques such as thermal conversion and photovoltaic (PV) conversion processes. This chapter deals with the necessary information regarding solar thermal conversion systems and solar photovoltaic conversion systems or the combination of both for commercial and domestic purposes. The more prevalent solar conversion techniques consist of solar water heating, solar air heating, solar thermal power plants, solar air conditioning and refrigeration, etc., while solar photovoltaic system (SPS) converts incident solar radiation into electrical energy by using solar cell consisting of semiconductor materials. In brevity to understand the depth of solar energy conversion process as incredible utility, some past and ongoing research details have also been mentioned. Moreover, many recent developments and future aspects have been discussed about solar energy in terms of applications, challenges, and requirement to focus on the utilization of sun’s energy as promising, sustainable, economical, and environmental-friendly renewable source.