Global environmental concerns and the escalating demand for energy, coupled with steady progress in renewable energy technologies, are opening up new opportunities for utilization of renewable energy resources. Solar energy is the most abundant, inexhaustible and clean of all the renewable energy resources till date. The power from sun intercepted by the earth is about 1.8 × 1011 MW, which is many times larger than the present rate of all the energy consumption. Photovoltaic technology is one of the finest ways to harness the solar power. This paper reviews the photovoltaic technology, its power generating capability, the different existing light absorbing materials used, its environmental aspect coupled with a variety of its applications. The different existing performance and reliability evaluation models, sizing and control, grid connection and distribution have also been discussed. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A review of solar photovoltaic technologies

World׳s energy demand is growing fast because of population explosion and technological advancements. It is therefore important to go for reliable, cost effective and everlasting renewable energy source for energy demand arising in future. Solar energy, among other renewable sources of energy, is a promising and freely available energy source for managing long term issues in energy crisis. Solar industry is developing steadily all over the world because of the high demand for energy while major energy source, fossil fuel, is limited and other sources are expensive. It has become a tool to develop economic status of developing countries and to sustain the lives of many underprivileged people as it is now cost effective after a long aggressive researches done to expedite its development. The solar industry would definitely be a best option for future energy demand since it is superior in terms of availability, cost effectiveness, accessibility, capacity and efficiency compared to other renewable energy sources. This paper therefore discusses about the need of solar industry with its fundamental concepts, worlds energy scenario, highlights of researches done to upgrade solar industry, its potential applications and barriers for better solar industry in future in order to resolve energy crisis.

Solar energy for future world: - A review

Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) are becoming popular for remote area power generation applications due to advances in renewable energy technologies and subsequent rise in prices of petroleum products. Economic aspects of these technologies are sufficiently promising to include them in developing power generation capacity for developing countries. Research and development efforts in solar, wind, and other renewable energy technologies are required to continue for, improving their performance, establishing techniques for accurately predicting their output and reliably integrating them with other conventional generating sources. The paper describes methodologies to model HRES components, HRES designs and their evaluation. The trends in HRES design show that the hybrid PV/wind energy systems are becoming gaining popular. The issues related to penetration of these energy systems in the present distribution network are highlighted.

Modeling of hybrid renewable energy systems

Large-scale integration of optimal combinations of PV, wind and wave power into the electricity supply

The one of main causes of reducing energy yield of photovoltaic systems is partially shaded conditions. Although the conventional maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control algorithms operate well under uniform insolation, they do not operate well in non-uniform insolation. The non-uniform conditions cause multiple local maximum power points on the power-voltage curve. The conventional MPPT methods cannot distinguish between the global and local peaks. Since the global maximum power point (MPP) may change within a large voltage window and also its position depends on shading patterns, it is very difficult to recognise the global operating point under partially shaded conditions. In this paper, a novel MPPT system is proposed for partially shaded PV array using artificial neural network (ANN) and fuzzy logic with polar information controller. The ANN with three layer feed-forward is trained once for several partially shaded conditions to determine the global MPP voltage. The fuzzy logic with polar information controller uses the global MPP voltage as a reference voltage to generate the required control signal for the power converter. Another objective of this study is to determine the estimated maximum power and energy generation of PV system through the same ANN structure. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated under the experimental real-time simulation technique based dSPACE real-time interface system for different interconnected PV arrays such as series-parallel, bridge link and total cross tied configurations.

Ali H. Abdullah

Papers

Optimizing electrical load pattern in Kuwait using grid connected photovoltaic systems

Thermal performance of flat plate solar collector using various arrangements of compound honeycomb

Economic analysis of photovoltaic-powered solar domestic hot water systems in Kuwait

Assesment of grid-connected photovoltaic systems in the Kuwaiti climate.

Yields of multiply charged ions produced from inner-shell ionization in neutral Ne, Ar and Kr atoms