Investigation on potential photovoltaic power modules for higher electrical output

Abstract

Energy is the most basic and essential of all resources. In recent years, the problem newlineof energy crunch has become more and more aggravating. At present, the world s newlineenergy consumption per year is roughly 1014 KWh. Today, every country draws its newlineenergy needs from a variety of sources. All the energy used on Earth comes from newlinefission or fusion of atomic nuclei, or from energy stored in the Earth. These sources newlineare broadly categorized as commercial and non-commercial. The commercial sources newlineinclude the fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas), hydroelectric power and nuclear newlinepower, while fossil fuels are the main fuels for thermal power. Therefore, most of the newlinegeneration of energy in our modern industrialized society is strongly depending on newlinevery limited non-renewable resources, particularly fossil fuels such as coal and crude newlineoil. Unfortunately these non-renewable forms of energy on earth are ultimately finite newlinesources of energy. Also burning of oil and coal in the process of conversion to newlineelectrical power is quite harmful to the environment. newlineSeveral researchers are working in the area of conventional power generation but newlinealso in the area of unlimited energy sources such as solar power generation, wind newlinepower generation etc. These renewable energy sources like solar and wind are proved newlineto be possible cost effective alternatives to fossil fuels in long run. Compared to wind newlineenergy, the most effective and harmless energy source is solar energy. Solar energy newlinecan be a major source of power. It is the best option for electricity generation as it is newlineavailable every where and is free to harness. Its potential is 178 billion MW which is newlineabout 20,000 times the worlds demand. On an average the sunshine hour in India is newlineabout 6 hours, also the sun shines in India for about 9 months in a year. newlineElectricity from the Sun can be generated through the solar photovoltaic arrays, newlinewhich convert the solar energy directly into electricity. The operational requirement newlineii newlineof any electrical device is that it has to cater maximum available pow