Home > Industry/Domain > Energy > Solar power

Solar power

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP). Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaics convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect.

Contributors in Solar power

Solar power

module

Energy; Solar power

See photovoltaic (PV) module.

module derate factor

Energy; Solar power

A factor that lowers the photovoltaic module current to account for field operating conditions such as dirt accumulation on the module.

monolithic

Energy; Solar power

Fabricated as a single structure.

movistor

Energy; Solar power

Metal Oxide Varistor. Used to protect electronic circuits from surge currents such as those produced by lightning.

multicrystalline

Energy; Solar power

A semiconductor (photovoltaic) material composed of variously oriented, small, individual crystals. Sometimes referred to as polycrystalline or semicrystalline.

multijunction device

Energy; Solar power

A high-efficiency photovoltaic device containing two or more cell junctions, each of which is optimized for a particular part of the solar spectrum.

multi-stage controller

Energy; Solar power

A charging controller unit that allows different charging currents as the battery nears full state_of_charge.

Featured blossaries

The art economy

Category: Arts   1 7 Terms

Programming Languages

Category: Languages   2 17 Terms