Solar Power Sources: PV, Concentrated PV, and Concentrated Solar Power

Solar power is highly abundant, relatively reliable, and not limited to a geographic region, making it one of the most important renewable energy sources. Catering for a clean and green energy system, solar energy will be an active player in the future mixed power grid that is also undergoing a significant change. Beyond this energy transition, the still declining cost of the solar technology has become an important driving force for more solar-powered systems. However, high penetration of solar-powered systems also brings technical challenges to the entire energy systems. In order to fully address those issues, the technological properties of solar power should be investigated. Thus, the basics of solar power technology will be introduced and discussed in this chapter.