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The Future of Solar Energy

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The Future of Solar Energy considers only the two widely recognized classes of technologies for converting solar energy into electricity — photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP), sometimes called solar thermal) — in their current and plausible future forms. Because energy supply facilities typically last several decades, technologies in these classes will dominate solar-powered generation between now and 2050, and we do not attempt to look beyond that date. In contrast to some earlier Future of studies, we also present no forecasts — for two reasons. First, expanding the solar industry dramatically from its relatively tiny current scale may produce changes we do not pretend to be able to foresee today. Second, we recognize that future solar deployment will depend heavily on uncertain future market conditions and public policies — including but not limited to policies aimed at mitigating global climate change.

As in other studies in this series, our primary aim is to inform decision-makers in the developed world, particularly the United States. We concentrate on the use of grid-connected solar-powered generators to replace conventional sources of electricity. For the more than one billion people in the developing world who lack access to a reliable electric grid, the cost of small-scale PV generation is often outweighed by the very high value of access to electricity for lighting and charging mobile telephone and radio batteries. In addition, in some developing nations it may be economic to use solar generation to reduce reliance on imported oil, particularly if that oil must be moved by truck to remote generator sites. A companion working paper discusses both these valuable roles for solar energy in the developing world.

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Shaping photovoltaic array output to align with changing wholesale electricity price profiles

Spatial and temporal variation in the value of solar power across United States electricity markets

Solar heating for residential and industrial processes

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These Record-Breaking New Solar Panels Produce 60 Percent More Electricity

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THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license .

The sight of solar panels installed on rooftops and large energy farms has become commonplace in many regions around the world. Even in the gray and rainy UK, solar power is becoming a major player in electricity generation.

This surge in solar is fueled by two key developments. First, scientists, engineers, and those in industry are learning how to make solar panels by the billions. Every fabrication step is meticulously optimized to produce them very cheaply. The second and most significant is the relentless increase in the panels’ power conversion efficiency—a measure of how much sunlight can be transformed into electricity.

The higher the efficiency of solar panels , the cheaper the electricity. This might make you wonder: Just how efficient can we expect solar energy to become? And will it make a dent in our energy bills?

Commercially available solar panels today convert about 20 to 22 percent of sunlight into electrical power. However, new research published in Nature has shown that future solar panels could reach efficiencies as high as 34 percent by exploiting a new technology called tandem solar cells. The research demonstrates a record power-conversion efficiency for tandem solar cells.

What Are Tandem Solar Cells?

Traditional solar cells are made using a single material to absorb sunlight. Currently, almost all solar panels are made from silicon—the same material at the core of microchips. While silicon is a mature and reliable material, its efficiency is limited to about 29 percent.

To overcome this limit, scientists have turned to tandem solar cells, which stack two solar materials on top of each other to capture more of the sun’s energy.

In the new Nature paper, a team of researchers at the energy giant LONGi has reported a new tandem solar cell that combines silicon and perovskite materials. Thanks to their improved sunlight harvesting, the new perovskite-silicon tandem has achieved a world record 33.89 percent efficiency.

Perovskite solar materials, which were discovered less than two decades ago , have emerged as the ideal complement to the established silicon technology. The secret lies in their light absorption tunability . Perovskite materials can capture high-energy blue light more efficiently than silicon.

In this way, energy losses are avoided and the total tandem efficiency increases. Other materials, called III-V semiconductors, have also been used in tandem cells and achieved higher efficiencies. The problem is they are hard to produce and expensive, so only small solar cells can be made in combination with focused light.

The scientific community is putting tremendous effort into perovskite solar cells. They have kept a phenomenal pace of development with efficiencies (for a single cell in the lab) rising from 14 percent to 26 percent in only 10 years. Such advances enabled their integration into ultra-high-efficiency tandem solar cells, demonstrating a pathway to scale photovoltaic technology to the trillions of watts the world needs to decarbonize our energy production.

The Cost of Solar Electricity

The new record-breaking tandem cells can capture an additional 60 percent of solar energy. This means fewer panels are needed to produce the same energy, reducing installation costs and the land (or roof area) required for solar farms.

It also means that power plant operators will generate solar energy at a higher profit. However, due to the way that electricity prices are set in the UK , consumers may never notice a difference in their electricity bills. The real difference comes when you consider rooftop solar installations where the area is constrained and the space has to be exploited effectively.

The price of rooftop solar power is calculated based on two key measures: first, the total cost to install solar panels on your roof, and second, how much electricity they will generate over 25 years of operation. While the installation cost is easy to obtain, the savings from generating solar electricity at home are a bit more nuanced. You can save money by using less energy from the grid, especially in periods when it is costly, and you can also sell some of your surplus electricity back to the grid. However, grid operators pay a very small price for this electricity, so sometimes it is more advantageous to use a battery and store the energy for use at night.

Using average considerations for a typical British household, I have calculated the cash savings to consumers using rooftop solar panels. If we can improve panel efficiency from 22 percent to 34 percent without increasing the installation cost, savings in electricity bills will rise from £558ְ ($747) per year up to £709 ($950) per year. A 27 percent bump in cash savings that would make solar rooftops extremely attractive, even in gray and cloudy Britain.

Tandem solar panels may become standard in the future—but scaling up production of these cells will be challenging.

So When Can We Buy These New Solar Panels?

As research continues, considerable efforts are being made to scale up this technology and ensure its long-term durability. The record-breaking tandem cells are made in laboratories and are smaller than a postage stamp. Translating such high performance to meter-square areas remains a vast challenge.

Yet we are making progress. Earlier this month, Oxford PV, a solar manufacturer at the forefront of perovskite technology, announced the first sale of its newly developed tandem solar panels. They have successfully tackled the challenges of integrating two solar materials and making durable and reliable panels. While they are still far from 34 percent efficiency, their work shows a promising route for next-generation solar cells.

Another consideration is the sustainability of the materials used in tandem solar panels. Extracting and processing some of the minerals in solar panels can be hugely energy-intensive . Besides silicon, perovskite solar cells require the elements lead, carbon, iodine, and bromine as components to make them work properly. Connecting perovskite and silicon also requires scarce materials containing an element called indium , so there is plenty of research still required to address these difficulties.

Despite the challenges, the scientific and industrial communities remains committed to developing tandem solar devices that could be integrated into almost anything—cars, buildings, and planes.

The recent developments toward high-efficiency perovskite-silicon tandem cells indicate a bright future for solar power, ensuring that solar continues to play a more prominent role in the global transition to renewable energy.

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Researchers find benefits of solar photovoltaics outweigh costs

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Over the past decade, the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays has fallen rapidly. But at the same time, the value of PV power has declined in areas that have installed significant PV generating capacity. Operators of utility-scale PV systems have seen electricity prices drop as more PV generators come online. Over the same time period, many coal-fired power plants were required to install emissions-control systems, resulting in declines in air pollution nationally and regionally. The result has been improved public health — but also a decrease in the potential health benefits from offsetting coal generation with PV generation.

Given those competing trends, do the benefits of PV generation outweigh the costs? Answering that question requires balancing the up-front capital costs against the lifetime benefits of a PV system. Determining the former is fairly straightforward. But assessing the latter is challenging because the benefits differ across time and place. “The differences aren’t just due to variation in the amount of sunlight a given location receives throughout the year,” says  Patrick R. Brown PhD ’16, a postdoc at the MIT Energy Initiative. “They’re also due to variability in electricity prices and pollutant emissions.”

The drop in the price paid for utility-scale PV power stems in part from how electricity is bought and sold on wholesale electricity markets. On the “day-ahead” market, generators and customers submit bids specifying how much they’ll sell or buy at various price levels at a given hour on the following day. The lowest-cost generators are chosen first. Since the variable operating cost of PV systems is near zero, they’re almost always chosen, taking the place of the most expensive generator then in the lineup. The price paid to every selected generator is set by the highest-cost operator on the system, so as more PV power comes on, more high-cost generators come off, and the price drops for everyone. As a result, in the middle of the day, when solar is generating the most, prices paid to electricity generators are at their lowest.

Brown notes that some generators may even bid negative prices. “They’re effectively paying consumers to take their power to ensure that they are dispatched,” he explains. For example, inflexible coal and nuclear plants may bid negative prices to avoid frequent shutdown and startup events that would result in extra fuel and maintenance costs. Renewable generators may also bid negative prices to obtain larger subsidies that are rewarded based on production. 

Health benefits also differ over time and place. The health effects of deploying PV power are greater in a heavily populated area that relies on coal power than in a less-populated region that has access to plenty of clean hydropower or wind. And the local health benefits of PV power can be higher when there’s congestion on transmission lines that leaves a region stuck with whatever high-polluting sources are available nearby. The social costs of air pollution are largely “externalized,” that is, they are mostly unaccounted for in electricity markets. But they can be quantified using statistical methods, so health benefits resulting from reduced emissions can be incorporated when assessing the cost-competitiveness of PV generation.

The contribution of fossil-fueled generators to climate change is another externality not accounted for by most electricity markets. Some U.S. markets, particularly in California and the Northeast, have implemented cap-and-trade programs, but the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) prices in those markets are much lower than estimates of the social cost of CO 2 , and other markets don’t price carbon at all. A full accounting of the benefits of PV power thus requires determining the CO 2  emissions displaced by PV generation and then multiplying that value by a uniform carbon price representing the damage that those emissions would have caused.

Calculating PV costs and benefits

To examine the changing value of solar power, Brown and his colleague Francis M. O’Sullivan, the senior vice president of strategy at Ørsted Onshore North America and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, developed a methodology to assess the costs and benefits of PV power across the U.S. power grid annually from 2010 to 2017. 

The researchers focused on six “independent system operators” (ISOs) in California, Texas, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, New York, and New England. Each ISO sets electricity prices at hundreds of “pricing nodes” along the transmission network in their region. The researchers performed analyses at more than 10,000 of those pricing nodes.

For each node, they simulated the operation of a utility-scale PV array that tilts to follow the sun throughout the day. They calculated how much electricity it would generate and the benefits that each kilowatt would provide, factoring in energy and “capacity” revenues as well as avoided health and climate change costs associated with the displacement of fossil fuel emissions. (Capacity revenues are paid to generators for being available to deliver electricity at times of peak demand.) They focused on emissions of CO 2 , which contributes to climate change, and of nitrogen oxides (NO x ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), and particulate matter called PM 2.5 — fine particles that can cause serious health problems and can be emitted or formed in the atmosphere from NO x  and SO 2 .

The results of the analysis showed that the wholesale energy value of PV generation varied significantly from place to place, even within the region of a given ISO. For example, in New York City and Long Island, where population density is high and adding transmission lines is difficult, the market value of solar was at times 50 percent higher than across the state as a whole. 

The public health benefits associated with SO 2 , NO x , and PM 2.5  emissions reductions declined over the study period but were still substantial in 2017. Monetizing the health benefits of PV generation in 2017 would add almost 75 percent to energy revenues in the Midwest and New York and fully 100 percent in the Mid-Atlantic, thanks to the large amount of coal generation in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic and the high population density on the Eastern Seaboard. 

Based on the calculated energy and capacity revenues and health and climate benefits for 2017, the researchers asked: Given that combination of private and public benefits, what upfront PV system cost would be needed to make the PV installation “break even” over its lifetime, assuming that grid conditions in that year persist for the life of the installation? In other words, says Brown, “At what capital cost would an investment in a PV system be paid back in benefits over the lifetime of the array?” 

Assuming 2017 values for energy and capacity market revenues alone, an unsubsidized PV investment at 2017 costs doesn’t break even. Add in the health benefit, and PV breaks even at 30 percent of the pricing nodes modeled. Assuming a carbon price of $50 per ton, the investment breaks even at about 70 percent of the nodes, and with a carbon price of $100 per ton (which is still less than the price estimated to be needed to limit global temperature rise to under 2 degrees Celsius), PV breaks even at all of the modeled nodes. 

That wasn’t the case just two years earlier: At 2015 PV costs, PV would only have broken even in 2017 at about 65 percent of the nodes counting market revenues, health benefits, and a $100 per ton carbon price. “Since 2010, solar has gone from one of the most expensive sources of electricity to one of the cheapest, and it now breaks even across the majority of the U.S. when considering the full slate of values that it provides,” says Brown. 

Based on their findings, the researchers conclude that the decline in PV costs over the studied period outpaced the decline in value, such that in 2017 the market, health, and climate benefits outweighed the cost of PV systems at the majority of locations modeled. “So the amount of solar that’s competitive is still increasing year by year,” says Brown. 

The findings underscore the importance of considering health and climate benefits as well as market revenues. “If you’re going to add another megawatt of PV power, it’s best to put it where it’ll make the most difference, not only in terms of revenues but also health and CO 2 ,” says Brown. 

Unfortunately, today’s policies don’t reward that behavior. Some states do provide renewable energy subsidies for solar investments, but they reward generation equally everywhere. Yet in states such as New York, the public health benefits would have been far higher at some nodes than at others. State-level or regional reward mechanisms could be tailored to reflect such variation in node-to-node benefits of PV generation, providing incentives for installing PV systems where they’ll be most valuable. Providing time-varying price signals (including the cost of emissions) not only to utility-scale generators, but also to residential and commercial electricity generators and customers, would similarly guide PV investment to areas where it provides the most benefit. 

Time-shifting PV output to maximize revenues 

The analysis provides some guidance that might help would-be PV installers maximize their revenues. For example, it identifies certain “hot spots” where PV generation is especially valuable. At some high-electricity-demand nodes along the East Coast, for instance, persistent grid congestion has meant that the projected revenue of a PV generator has been high for more than a decade. The analysis also shows that the sunniest site may not always be the most profitable choice. A PV system in Texas would generate about 20 percent more power than one in the Northeast, yet energy revenues were greater at nodes in the Northeast than in Texas in some of the years analyzed. 

To help potential PV owners maximize their future revenues, Brown and O’Sullivan performed a follow-on study focusing on ways to shift the output of PV arrays to align with times of higher prices on the wholesale market. For this analysis, they considered the value of solar on the day-ahead market and also on the “real-time market,” which dispatches generators to correct for discrepancies between supply and demand. They explored three options for shaping the output of PV generators, with a focus on the California real-time market in 2017, when high PV penetration led to a large reduction in midday prices compared to morning and evening prices.

• Curtailing output when prices are negative: During negative-price hours, a PV operator can simply turn off generation. In California in 2017, curtailment would have increased revenues by 9 percent on the real-time market compared to “must-run” operation.
• Changing the orientation of “fixed-tilt” (stationary) solar panels: The general rule of thumb in the Northern Hemisphere is to orient solar panels toward the south, maximizing production over the year. But peak production then occurs at about noon, when electricity prices in markets with high solar penetration are at their lowest. Pointing panels toward the west moves generation further into the afternoon. On the California real-time market in 2017, optimizing the orientation would have increased revenues by 13 percent, or 20 percent in conjunction with curtailment.
• Using 1-axis tracking: For larger utility-scale installations, solar panels are frequently installed on automatic solar trackers, rotating throughout the day from east in the morning to west in the evening. Using such 1-axis tracking on the California system in 2017 would have increased revenues by 32 percent over a fixed-tilt installation, and using tracking plus curtailment would have increased revenues by 42 percent.

The researchers were surprised to see how much the optimal orientation changed in California over the period of their study. “In 2010, the best orientation for a fixed array was about 10 degrees west of south,” says Brown. “In 2017, it’s about 55 degrees west of south.” That adjustment is due to changes in market prices that accompany significant growth in PV generation — changes that will occur in other regions as they start to ramp up their solar generation.

The researchers stress that conditions are constantly changing on power grids and electricity markets. With that in mind, they made their database and computer code openly available so that others can readily use them to calculate updated estimates of the net benefits of PV power and other distributed energy resources.

They also emphasize the importance of getting time-varying prices to all market participants and of adapting installation and dispatch strategies to changing power system conditions. A law set to take effect in California in 2020 will require all new homes to have solar panels. Installing the usual south-facing panels with uncurtailable output could further saturate the electricity market at times when other PV installations are already generating.

“If new rooftop arrays instead use west-facing panels that can be switched off during negative price times, it’s better for the whole system,” says Brown. “Rather than just adding more solar at times when the price is already low and the electricity mix is already clean, the new PV installations would displace expensive and dirty gas generators in the evening. Enabling that outcome is a win all around.”

Patrick Brown and this research were supported by a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Postdoctoral Research Award through the EERE Solar Energy Technologies Office. The computer code and data repositories are available here and here .

This article appears in the  Spring 2020  issue of  Energy Futures, the magazine of the MIT Energy Initiative. 

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Article Contents

Introduction, 1 installed capacity and application of solar energy worldwide, 2 the role of solar energy in sustainable development, 3 the perspective of solar energy, 4 conclusions, conflict of interest statement.

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Solar energy technology and its roles in sustainable development

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Ali O M Maka, Jamal M Alabid, Solar energy technology and its roles in sustainable development, Clean Energy , Volume 6, Issue 3, June 2022, Pages 476–483, https://doi.org/10.1093/ce/zkac023

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Solar energy is environmentally friendly technology, a great energy supply and one of the most significant renewable and green energy sources. It plays a substantial role in achieving sustainable development energy solutions. Therefore, the massive amount of solar energy attainable daily makes it a very attractive resource for generating electricity. Both technologies, applications of concentrated solar power or solar photovoltaics, are always under continuous development to fulfil our energy needs. Hence, a large installed capacity of solar energy applications worldwide, in the same context, supports the energy sector and meets the employment market to gain sufficient development. This paper highlights solar energy applications and their role in sustainable development and considers renewable energy’s overall employment potential. Thus, it provides insights and analysis on solar energy sustainability, including environmental and economic development. Furthermore, it has identified the contributions of solar energy applications in sustainable development by providing energy needs, creating jobs opportunities and enhancing environmental protection. Finally, the perspective of solar energy technology is drawn up in the application of the energy sector and affords a vision of future development in this domain.

With reference to the recommendations of the UN, the Climate Change Conference, COP26, was held in Glasgow , UK, in 2021. They reached an agreement through the representatives of the 197 countries, where they concurred to move towards reducing dependency on coal and fossil-fuel sources. Furthermore, the conference stated ‘the various opportunities for governments to prioritize health and equity in the international climate movement and sustainable development agenda’. Also, one of the testaments is the necessity to ‘create energy systems that protect and improve climate and health’ [ 1 , 2 ].

The Paris Climate Accords is a worldwide agreement on climate change signed in 2015, which addressed the mitigation of climate change, adaptation and finance. Consequently, the representatives of 196 countries concurred to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions [ 3 ]. The Paris Agreement is essential for present and future generations to attain a more secure and stable environment. In essence, the Paris Agreement has been about safeguarding people from such an uncertain and progressively dangerous environment and ensuring everyone can have the right to live in a healthy, pollutant-free environment without the negative impacts of climate change [ 3 , 4 ].

In recent decades, there has been an increase in demand for cleaner energy resources. Based on that, decision-makers of all countries have drawn up plans that depend on renewable sources through a long-term strategy. Thus, such plans reduce the reliance of dependence on traditional energy sources and substitute traditional energy sources with alternative energy technology. As a result, the global community is starting to shift towards utilizing sustainable energy sources and reducing dependence on traditional fossil fuels as a source of energy [ 5 , 6 ].

In 2015, the UN adopted the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and recognized them as international legislation, which demands a global effort to end poverty, safeguard the environment and guarantee that by 2030, humanity lives in prosperity and peace. Consequently, progress needs to be balanced among economic, social and environmental sustainability models [ 7 ].

Many national and international regulations have been established to control the gas emissions and pollutants that impact the environment [ 8 ]. However, the negative effects of increased carbon in the atmosphere have grown in the last 10 years. Production and use of fossil fuels emit methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and carbon monoxide (CO), which are the most significant contributors to environmental emissions on our planet. Additionally, coal and oil, including gasoline, coal, oil and methane, are commonly used in energy for transport or for generating electricity. Therefore, burning these fossil fuel s is deemed the largest emitter when used for electricity generation, transport, etc. However, these energy resources are considered depleted energy sources being consumed to an unsustainable degree [ 9–11 ].

Energy is an essential need for the existence and growth of human communities. Consequently, the need for energy has increased gradually as human civilization has progressed. Additionally, in the past few decades, the rapid rise of the world’s population and its reliance on technological developments have increased energy demands. Furthermore, green technology sources play an important role in sustainably providing energy supplies, especially in mitigating climate change [ 5 , 6 , 8 ].

Currently, fossil fuels remain dominant and will continue to be the primary source of large-scale energy for the foreseeable future; however, renewable energy should play a vital role in the future of global energy. The global energy system is undergoing a movement towards more sustainable sources of energy [ 12 , 13 ].

Power generation by fossil-fuel resources has peaked, whilst solar energy is predicted to be at the vanguard of energy generation in the near future. Moreover, it is predicted that by 2050, the generation of solar energy will have increased to 48% due to economic and industrial growth [ 13 , 14 ].

In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that the globe must decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, ideally towards net zero, if we are to fulfil the Paris Agreement’s goal to reduce global temperature increases [ 3 , 4 ]. The net-zero emissions complement the scenario of sustainable development assessment by 2050. According to the agreed scenario of sustainable development, many industrialized economies must achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. However, the net-zero emissions 2050 brought the first detailed International Energy Agency (IEA) modelling of what strategy will be required over the next 10 years to achieve net-zero carbon emissions worldwide by 2050 [ 15–17 ].

The global statistics of greenhouse gas emissions have been identified; in 2019, there was a 1% decrease in CO 2 emissions from the power industry; that figure dropped by 7% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 crisis, thus indicating a drop in coal-fired energy generation that is being squeezed by decreasing energy needs, growth of renewables and the shift away from fossil fuels. As a result, in 2020, the energy industry was expected to generate ~13 Gt CO 2 , representing ~40% of total world energy sector emissions related to CO 2 . The annual electricity generation stepped back to pre-crisis levels by 2021, although due to a changing ‘fuel mix’, the CO 2 emissions in the power sector will grow just a little before remaining roughly steady until 2030 [ 15 ].

Therefore, based on the information mentioned above, the advantages of solar energy technology are a renewable and clean energy source that is plentiful, cheaper costs, less maintenance and environmentally friendly, to name but a few. The significance of this paper is to highlight solar energy applications to ensure sustainable development; thus, it is vital to researchers, engineers and customers alike. The article’s primary aim is to raise public awareness and disseminate the culture of solar energy usage in daily life, since moving forward, it is the best. The scope of this paper is as follows. Section 1 represents a summary of the introduction. Section 2 represents a summary of installed capacity and the application of solar energy worldwide. Section 3 presents the role of solar energy in the sustainable development and employment of renewable energy. Section 4 represents the perspective of solar energy. Finally, Section 5 outlines the conclusions and recommendations for future work.

1.1 Installed capacity of solar energy

The history of solar energy can be traced back to the seventh century when mirrors with solar power were used. In 1893, the photovoltaic (PV) effect was discovered; after many decades, scientists developed this technology for electricity generation [ 18 ]. Based on that, after many years of research and development from scientists worldwide, solar energy technology is classified into two key applications: solar thermal and solar PV.

PV systems convert the Sun’s energy into electricity by utilizing solar panels. These PV devices have quickly become the cheapest option for new electricity generation in numerous world locations due to their ubiquitous deployment. For example, during the period from 2010 to 2018, the cost of generating electricity by solar PV plants decreased by 77%. However, solar PV installed capacity progress expanded 100-fold between 2005 and 2018. Consequently, solar PV has emerged as a key component in the low-carbon sustainable energy system required to provide access to affordable and dependable electricity, assisting in fulfilling the Paris climate agreement and in achieving the 2030 SDG targets [ 19 ].

The installed capacity of solar energy worldwide has been rapidly increased to meet energy demands. The installed capacity of PV technology from 2010 to 2020 increased from 40 334 to 709 674 MW, whereas the installed capacity of concentrated solar power (CSP) applications, which was 1266 MW in 2010, after 10 years had increased to 6479 MW. Therefore, solar PV technology has more deployed installations than CSP applications. So, the stand-alone solar PV and large-scale grid-connected PV plants are widely used worldwide and used in space applications. Fig. 1 represents the installation of solar energy worldwide.

Installation capacity of solar energy worldwide [ 20 ].

1.2 Application of solar energy

Energy can be obtained directly from the Sun—so-called solar energy. Globally, there has been growth in solar energy applications, as it can be used to generate electricity, desalinate water and generate heat, etc. The taxonomy of applications of solar energy is as follows: (i) PVs and (ii) CSP. Fig. 2 details the taxonomy of solar energy applications.

The taxonomy of solar energy applications.

Solar cells are devices that convert sunlight directly into electricity; typical semiconductor materials are utilized to form a PV solar cell device. These materials’ characteristics are based on atoms with four electrons in their outer orbit or shell. Semiconductor materials are from the periodic table’s group ‘IV’ or a mixture of groups ‘IV’ and ‘II’, the latter known as ‘II–VI’ semiconductors [ 21 ]. Additionally, a periodic table mixture of elements from groups ‘III’ and ‘V’ can create ‘III–V’ materials [ 22 ].

PV devices, sometimes called solar cells, are electronic devices that convert sunlight into electrical power. PVs are also one of the rapidly growing renewable-energy technologies of today. It is therefore anticipated to play a significant role in the long-term world electricity-generating mixture moving forward.

Solar PV systems can be incorporated to supply electricity on a commercial level or installed in smaller clusters for mini-grids or individual usage. Utilizing PV modules to power mini-grids is a great way to offer electricity to those who do not live close to power-transmission lines, especially in developing countries with abundant solar energy resources. In the most recent decade, the cost of producing PV modules has dropped drastically, giving them not only accessibility but sometimes making them the least expensive energy form. PV arrays have a 30-year lifetime and come in various shades based on the type of material utilized in their production.

The most typical method for solar PV desalination technology that is used for desalinating sea or salty water is electrodialysis (ED). Therefore, solar PV modules are directly connected to the desalination process. This technique employs the direct-current electricity to remove salt from the sea or salty water.

The technology of PV–thermal (PV–T) comprises conventional solar PV modules coupled with a thermal collector mounted on the rear side of the PV module to pre-heat domestic hot water. Accordingly, this enables a larger portion of the incident solar energy on the collector to be converted into beneficial electrical and thermal energy.

A zero-energy building is a building that is designed for zero net energy emissions and emits no carbon dioxide. Building-integrated PV (BIPV) technology is coupled with solar energy sources and devices in buildings that are utilized to supply energy needs. Thus, building-integrated PVs utilizing thermal energy (BIPV/T) incorporate creative technologies such as solar cooling [ 23 ].

A PV water-pumping system is typically used to pump water in rural, isolated and desert areas. The system consists of PV modules to power a water pump to the location of water need. The water-pumping rate depends on many factors such as pumping head, solar intensity, etc.

A PV-powered cathodic protection (CP) system is designed to supply a CP system to control the corrosion of a metal surface. This technique is based on the impressive current acquired from PV solar energy systems and is utilized for burying pipelines, tanks, concrete structures, etc.

Concentrated PV (CPV) technology uses either the refractive or the reflective concentrators to increase sunlight to PV cells [ 24 , 25 ]. High-efficiency solar cells are usually used, consisting of many layers of semiconductor materials that stack on top of each other. This technology has an efficiency of >47%. In addition, the devices produce electricity and the heat can be used for other purposes [ 26 , 27 ].

For CSP systems, the solar rays are concentrated using mirrors in this application. These rays will heat a fluid, resulting in steam used to power a turbine and generate electricity. Large-scale power stations employ CSP to generate electricity. A field of mirrors typically redirect rays to a tall thin tower in a CSP power station. Thus, numerous large flat heliostats (mirrors) are used to track the Sun and concentrate its light onto a receiver in power tower systems, sometimes known as central receivers. The hot fluid could be utilized right away to produce steam or stored for later usage. Another of the great benefits of a CSP power station is that it may be built with molten salts to store heat and generate electricity outside of daylight hours.

Mirrored dishes are used in dish engine systems to focus and concentrate sunlight onto a receiver. The dish assembly tracks the Sun’s movement to capture as much solar energy as possible. The engine includes thin tubes that work outside the four-piston cylinders and it opens into the cylinders containing hydrogen or helium gas. The pistons are driven by the expanding gas. Finally, the pistons drive an electric generator by turning a crankshaft.

A further water-treatment technique, using reverse osmosis, depends on the solar-thermal and using solar concentrated power through the parabolic trough technique. The desalination employs CSP technology that utilizes hybrid integration and thermal storage allows continuous operation and is a cost-effective solution. Solar thermal can be used for domestic purposes such as a dryer. In some countries or societies, the so-called food dehydration is traditionally used to preserve some food materials such as meats, fruits and vegetables.

Sustainable energy development is defined as the development of the energy sector in terms of energy generating, distributing and utilizing that are based on sustainability rules [ 28 ]. Energy systems will significantly impact the environment in both developed and developing countries. Consequently, the global sustainable energy system must optimize efficiency and reduce emissions [ 29 ].

The sustainable development scenario is built based on the economic perspective. It also examines what activities will be required to meet shared long-term climate benefits, clean air and energy access targets. The short-term details are based on the IEA’s sustainable recovery strategy, which aims to promote economies and employment through developing a cleaner and more reliable energy infrastructure [ 15 ]. In addition, sustainable development includes utilizing renewable-energy applications, smart-grid technologies, energy security, and energy pricing, and having a sound energy policy [ 29 ].

The demand-side response can help meet the flexibility requirements in electricity systems by moving demand over time. As a result, the integration of renewable technologies for helping facilitate the peak demand is reduced, system stability is maintained, and total costs and CO 2 emissions are reduced. The demand-side response is currently used mostly in Europe and North America, where it is primarily aimed at huge commercial and industrial electricity customers [ 15 ].

International standards are an essential component of high-quality infrastructure. Establishing legislative convergence, increasing competition and supporting innovation will allow participants to take part in a global world PV market [ 30 ]. Numerous additional countries might benefit from more actively engaging in developing global solar PV standards. The leading countries in solar PV manufacturing and deployment have embraced global standards for PV systems and highly contributed to clean-energy development. Additional assistance and capacity-building to enhance quality infrastructure in developing economies might also help support wider implementation and compliance with international solar PV standards. Thus, support can bring legal requirements and frameworks into consistency and give additional impetus for the trade of secure and high-quality solar PV products [ 19 ].

Continuous trade-led dissemination of solar PV and other renewable technologies will strengthen the national infrastructure. For instance, off-grid solar energy alternatives, such as stand-alone systems and mini-grids, could be easily deployed to assist healthcare facilities in improving their degree of services and powering portable testing sites and vaccination coolers. In addition to helping in the immediate medical crisis, trade-led solar PV adoption could aid in the improving economy from the COVID-19 outbreak, not least by providing jobs in the renewable-energy sector, which are estimated to reach >40 million by 2050 [ 19 ].

The framework for energy sustainability development, by the application of solar energy, is one way to achieve that goal. With the large availability of solar energy resources for PV and CSP energy applications, we can move towards energy sustainability. Fig. 3 illustrates plans for solar energy sustainability.

Framework for solar energy applications in energy sustainability.

The environmental consideration of such applications, including an aspect of the environmental conditions, operating conditions, etc., have been assessed. It is clean, friendly to the environment and also energy-saving. Moreover, this technology has no removable parts, low maintenance procedures and longevity.

Economic and social development are considered by offering job opportunities to the community and providing cheaper energy options. It can also improve people’s income; in turn, living standards will be enhanced. Therefore, energy is paramount, considered to be the most vital element of human life, society’s progress and economic development.

As efforts are made to increase the energy transition towards sustainable energy systems, it is anticipated that the next decade will see a continued booming of solar energy and all clean-energy technology. Scholars worldwide consider research and innovation to be substantial drivers to enhance the potency of such solar application technology.

2.1 Employment from renewable energy

The employment market has also boomed with the deployment of renewable-energy technology. Renewable-energy technology applications have created >12 million jobs worldwide. The solar PV application came as the pioneer, which created >3 million jobs. At the same time, while the solar thermal applications (solar heating and cooling) created >819 000 jobs, the CSP attained >31 000 jobs [ 20 ].

According to the reports, although top markets such as the USA, the EU and China had the highest investment in renewables jobs, other Asian countries have emerged as players in the solar PV panel manufacturers’ industry [ 31 ].

Solar energy employment has offered more employment than other renewable sources. For example, in the developing countries, there was a growth in employment chances in solar applications that powered ‘micro-enterprises’. Hence, it has been significant in eliminating poverty, which is considered the key goal of sustainable energy development. Therefore, solar energy plays a critical part in fulfilling the sustainability targets for a better plant and environment [ 31 , 32 ]. Fig. 4 illustrates distributions of world renewable-energy employment.

World renewable-energy employment [ 20 ].

The world distribution of PV jobs is disseminated across the continents as follows. There was 70% employment in PV applications available in Asia, while 10% is available in North America, 10% available in South America and 10% availability in Europe. Table 1 details the top 10 countries that have relevant jobs in Asia, North America, South America and Europe.

List of the top 10 countries that created jobs in solar PV applications [ 19 , 33 ]

Solar energy investments can meet energy targets and environmental protection by reducing carbon emissions while having no detrimental influence on the country’s development [ 32 , 34 ]. In countries located in the ‘Sunbelt’, there is huge potential for solar energy, where there is a year-round abundance of solar global horizontal irradiation. Consequently, these countries, including the Middle East, Australia, North Africa, China, the USA and Southern Africa, to name a few, have a lot of potential for solar energy technology. The average yearly solar intensity is >2800 kWh/m 2 and the average daily solar intensity is >7.5 kWh/m 2 . Fig. 5 illustrates the optimum areas for global solar irradiation.

World global solar irradiation map [ 35 ].

The distribution of solar radiation and its intensity are two important factors that influence the efficiency of solar PV technology and these two parameters vary among different countries. Therefore, it is essential to realize that some solar energy is wasted since it is not utilized. On the other hand, solar radiation is abundant in several countries, especially in developing ones, which makes it invaluable [ 36 , 37 ].

Worldwide, the PV industry has benefited recently from globalization, which has allowed huge improvements in economies of scale, while vertical integration has created strong value chains: as manufacturers source materials from an increasing number of suppliers, prices have dropped while quality has been maintained. Furthermore, the worldwide incorporated PV solar device market is growing fast, creating opportunities enabling solar energy firms to benefit from significant government help with underwriting, subsides, beneficial trading licences and training of a competent workforce, while the increased rivalry has reinforced the motivation to continue investing in research and development, both public and private [ 19 , 33 ].

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted ‘cross-border supply chains’ and those investors working in the renewable-energy sector. As a result, more diversity of solar PV supply-chain processes may be required in the future to enhance long-term flexibility versus exogenous shocks [ 19 , 33 ].

It is vital to establish a well-functioning quality infrastructure to expand the distribution of solar PV technologies beyond borders and make it easier for new enterprises to enter solar PV value chains. In addition, a strong quality infrastructure system is a significant instrument for assisting local firms in meeting the demands of trade markets. Furthermore, high-quality infrastructure can help reduce associated risks with the worldwide PV project value chain, such as underperforming, inefficient and failing goods, limiting the development, improvement and export of these technologies. Governments worldwide are, at various levels, creating quality infrastructure, including the usage of metrology i.e. the science of measurement and its application, regulations, testing procedures, accreditation, certification and market monitoring [ 33 , 38 ].

The perspective is based on a continuous process of technological advancement and learning. Its speed is determined by its deployment, which varies depending on the scenario [ 39 , 40 ]. The expense trends support policy preferences for low-carbon energy sources, particularly in increased energy-alteration scenarios. Emerging technologies are introduced and implemented as quickly as they ever have been before in energy history [ 15 , 33 ].

The CSP stations have been in use since the early 1980s and are currently found all over the world. The CSP power stations in the USA currently produce >800 MW of electricity yearly, which is sufficient to power ~500 000 houses. New CSP heat-transfer fluids being developed can function at ~1288 o C, which is greater than existing fluids, to improve the efficiency of CSP systems and, as a result, to lower the cost of energy generated using this technology. Thus, as a result, CSP is considered to have a bright future, with the ability to offer large-scale renewable energy that can supplement and soon replace traditional electricity-production technologies [ 41 ]. The DESERTEC project has drawn out the possibility of CSP in the Sahara Desert regions. When completed, this investment project will have the world’s biggest energy-generation capacity through the CSP plant, which aims to transport energy from North Africa to Europe [ 42 , 43 ].

The costs of manufacturing materials for PV devices have recently decreased, which is predicted to compensate for the requirements and increase the globe’s electricity demand [ 44 ]. Solar energy is a renewable, clean and environmentally friendly source of energy. Therefore, solar PV application techniques should be widely utilized. Although PV technology has always been under development for a variety of purposes, the fact that PV solar cells convert the radiant energy from the Sun directly into electrical power means it can be applied in space and in terrestrial applications [ 38 , 45 ].

In one way or another, the whole renewable-energy sector has a benefit over other energy industries. A long-term energy development plan needs an energy source that is inexhaustible, virtually accessible and simple to gather. The Sun rises over the horizon every day around the globe and leaves behind ~108–1018 kWh of energy; consequently, it is more than humanity will ever require to fulfil its desire for electricity [ 46 ].

The technology that converts solar radiation into electricity is well known and utilizes PV cells, which are already in use worldwide. In addition, various solar PV technologies are available today, including hybrid solar cells, inorganic solar cells and organic solar cells. So far, solar PV devices made from silicon have led the solar market; however, these PVs have certain drawbacks, such as expenditure of material, time-consuming production, etc. It is important to mention here the operational challenges of solar energy in that it does not work at night, has less output in cloudy weather and does not work in sandstorm conditions. PV battery storage is widely used to reduce the challenges to gain high reliability. Therefore, attempts have been made to find alternative materials to address these constraints. Currently, this domination is challenged by the evolution of the emerging generation of solar PV devices based on perovskite, organic and organic/inorganic hybrid materials.

This paper highlights the significance of sustainable energy development. Solar energy would help steady energy prices and give numerous social, environmental and economic benefits. This has been indicated by solar energy’s contribution to achieving sustainable development through meeting energy demands, creating jobs and protecting the environment. Hence, a paramount critical component of long-term sustainability should be investigated. Based on the current condition of fossil-fuel resources, which are deemed to be depleting energy sources, finding an innovative technique to deploy clean-energy technology is both essential and expected. Notwithstanding, solar energy has yet to reach maturity in development, especially CSP technology. Also, with growing developments in PV systems, there has been a huge rise in demand for PV technology applications all over the globe. Further work needs to be undertaken to develop energy sustainably and consider other clean energy resources. Moreover, a comprehensive experimental and validation process for such applications is required to develop cleaner energy sources to decarbonize our planet.

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The role of solar photovoltaic roofs in energy-saving buildings: research progress and future development trends.

1. Introduction

2. research method, 2.1. data collection, 2.2. bibliometric method and visualization tools, 3. results and discussion, 3.1. publication distribution, 3.1.1. publication statistics, 3.1.2. analysis of publication distribution characteristics, 3.2. the most influential research group, 3.2.1. country analysis of literature publication, 3.2.2. author analysis, 3.3. research direction and hotspot, 3.3.1. research direction analysis, 3.3.2. analysis of high-frequency co-cited literature.

Click here to enlarge figure

3.3.3. Keyword Co-Occurrence Analysis

• Renewable Energy
• Green Roofs
• Office Buildings

3.3.4. Research Trends and Outburst Word Analysis

3.4. development overview and future research prospects, 4. conclusions.

• The integration of renewable energy with building energy efficiency, especially the incorporation of solar PV roofs;
• The dual benefits of green roofs and PV systems, which, while not directly generating energy, provide insulation, soundproofing, and reduced energy consumption when combined with PV roofs;
• The design and application of building-integrated PV, focusing on roof design aspects such as form, slope, and the placement and orientation of solar panels;
• Optimization methods using parametric models, where energy simulation plays a crucial role in performance assessment, helping design teams with plan optimization and decision support.
• Efficient integration of PV with building maintenance structures, promoting BIPV development, and developing customizable, modular PV solutions to fit various roof structures;
• Performance optimization of PV systems, integrating advanced monitoring and management systems, and utilizing machine learning and AI algorithms to optimize performance and dynamically adjust system operations;
• Enhancement of energy utilization efficiency by combining PV roofs with other energy-efficient technologies such as green roofs and high-efficiency HVAC systems, strategically arranging solar panels to reduce heating and cooling demands;
• Optimization of the overall performance of PV roofs to improve building environments, adjusting the thermal performance parameters of PV roofs to regulate indoor light and thermal environments, thereby enhancing comfort levels in living or working spaces. This also includes adjusting the positioning and angle of solar panels to reduce the heat island effect.

Author Contributions

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Yin, Q.; Li, A.; Han, C. The Role of Solar Photovoltaic Roofs in Energy-Saving Buildings: Research Progress and Future Development Trends. Buildings 2024 , 14 , 3091. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14103091

Yin Q, Li A, Han C. The Role of Solar Photovoltaic Roofs in Energy-Saving Buildings: Research Progress and Future Development Trends. Buildings . 2024; 14(10):3091. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14103091

Yin, Qing, Ailin Li, and Chunmiao Han. 2024. "The Role of Solar Photovoltaic Roofs in Energy-Saving Buildings: Research Progress and Future Development Trends" Buildings 14, no. 10: 3091. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14103091

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How NASA Uses and Improves Solar Power

The sun is the most energetic object in our solar system ..

Humans have been finding creative ways to harness the Sun's heat and light for thousands of years. But the practice of converting the Sun’s energy into electricity — what we now call solar power — is less than 200 years old. Yet in that short time, solar power has revealed the Sun’s limitless potential to power an increasingly technological society. Since the 1950s, NASA has harnessed the energy of the Sun to power spacecraft and drive scientific discovery across our solar system. Today, NASA continues to advance solar panel technology and test new innovations. Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Lacey Young

A Brief History of Solar Power

Even before the light bulb, scientists had inklings of the power locked up in a ray of sunlight.

In 1839, French scientist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel (who was 19 at the time) was working in his father’s laboratory, experimenting with two metal sheets placed in an electricity-conducting liquid. As he shined light on the device, he detected a weak electric current — what we now know to be a flow of electrons through the material. This phenomenon was the first demonstration that light could generate electricity, known today as the photovoltaic effect.

In 1872, scientists discovered the first solid material — selenium — that could pass an electrical current.

By 1884 selenium had been incorporated in the world’s first solar array, which was installed on a New York City rooftop. Scientists continued to develop and experiment with selenium and other photovoltaic materials for the next 70 years, but practical applications were limited by their low efficiency – only about 1% of light energy could be converted to electricity.

A breakthrough came in 1954.

That's when scientists at Bell Labs used an abundant material called silicon to create the first solar cell that achieved 6% efficiency. Solar panels today use this same basic design, with adjustments that have allowed industrial and commercial solar panels to achieve between 15% and 23% efficiency.

How Solar Panels Work

Silicon is an abundant material used in many technological applications because it is a very good “semiconductor,” or material whose ability to carry electric current can be easily manipulated by adding energy. In typical solar cells, silicon is layered in three thin sheets. A middle layer is made of pure silicon. The outer two silicon layers are injected with other elements (typically phosphorous on one side, and boron on the other) that differ in their capacity to “donate” or “accept” electrons. As light strikes the pure silicon layer, it energizes the silicon’s electrons, which then begin to move within the material. Those electrons are attracted to the silicon layer designed to “accept” electrons, leading to a buildup of negative and positive charges in the outer layers. These two sides are then connected with wires to form a circuit that facilitates the flow of electrons from one side to the other, generating usable power.

Silicon-based solar cells power many of NASA’s spacecraft, including the James Webb Space Telescope. Learn more about why this abundant material is used in solar panels in this excerpt from NASA’s Elements of Webb video series.

Solar Power in Space

A mere four years after the first viable solar cells were created, they made their way to space.

The Soviet Union kicked off the space race with the launch of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, quickly followed by the United States’ Explorer 1 on Jan. 31, 1958. But as both satellites ran exclusively on battery power, they were dead within a few weeks. In March 1958, the United States launched the first solar-powered spacecraft, Vanguard 1 (pictured at right), which transmitted data for the next six years.

Solar cells became the de facto way to power spacecraft, and remain so today.

Some missions, such as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, require specialized solar panels that can operate in extreme environments. Flying on an elliptical orbit into the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe uses solar panels angled away and partially shaded from the Sun. It also uses a special cooling system to ensure the system isn’t overwhelmed by heat and was designed to be extra robust to deal with the intense ultraviolet rays it receives when close to the Sun, which can degrade materials rapidly. The spacecraft’s elliptical orbit also takes it far from the Sun, even beyond Venus. Engineers designed the solar array to compensate for how the light changes at different distances to the Sun, which alters the color and intensity of the sunlight it receives.

But sunlight drops dramatically with distance.

At Jupiter, which receives 25 times less light than Earth, the Juno spacecraft (pictured at right) needs three 30-foot-long panels to generate 500 watts of energy — about how much a typical refrigerator uses. Its orbit around Jupiter also helps keep the solar panels almost constantly exposed to sunlight to maximize power generation. Solar power becomes less viable for missions that venture even farther, where there’s not even enough light to charge a battery. Deep space missions like NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 rely instead on energy from the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 to keep them running well into interstellar space.

How NASA is Improving Solar Power

Perovskites for improved efficiency.

NASA scientists and other researchers around the world are working to improve the efficiency and durability of solar panels. In addition to using silicon, scientists have discovered that adding a layer of minerals known as perovskites can dramatically improve panel efficiency. Perovskites help capture bluer visible wavelengths, complimenting silicon’s redder wavelength coverage and allowing a solar cell to capture more light. In 2023, several independent research teams created small perovskite-silicon solar cells that exceeded 30% efficiency, and the best experimental cells today are approaching 50% efficiency.

ROSAs for Flexibility

NASA is also developing technology for flexible and rollable solar panels that can improve their use in constrained spaces. Using different materials for the base layer of a solar panel can make a panel lighter and more flexible — essential attributes for space missions that need to be packed into a small space in a rocket. The first two sets of solar arrays used by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in the 1990s and 2000s were designed with solar cells mounted to a flexible blanket-like material so they could be rolled up and stowed to fit inside the space shuttle cargo bay for launch. In 2009, NASA and its partners started working on the next iteration of flexible solar panels called roll-out solar arrays (ROSAs). These arrays, which unfurl like a roll of paper towels, are even lighter and more affordable than previous arrays. They have been used on NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, on commercial geostationary satellites, and on the International Space Station to augment its traditional solar array. NASA plans to include ROSAs on Gateway, an orbiting outpost crucial to NASA’s Artemis campaign.

Vertical Arrays for Lunar Applications

NASA is also involved with envisioning the next generation of solar power usage in space. To advance the Artemis campaign, NASA tasked three companies with developing and building prototypes of vertical deployable solar array systems to power human and robotic exploration of the Moon. Most space solar array structures are designed to be used horizontally, but on the Moon, vertically oriented structures atop tall masts will be needed to maximize sunlight collection at the lunar poles, where the Sun stays close to the horizon. Scientists are also investigating the feasibility of space-based solar power, which would collect sunlight from space and beam the energy back to Earth, potentially serving remote locations across the planet to supplement power transmission infrastructure on the ground.

The Future of Solar Power in Space

Sailing with the sun.

Along with working to improve the efficiency of solar panels, NASA is also looking beyond photovoltaics to an old technology: sails. Humans have crossed open waters by sail for thousands of years. And now, NASA is working on a system to traverse space using solar sails. Unlike photovoltaics, which work by capturing the energy of light, solar sails use the pressure of light. When a photon, or individual particle of light, bounces off a reflective solar sail, it imparts a small push. With enough photons, these tiny nudges can move an entire spacecraft, much like how traditional sails harness the multitude of tiny air molecules that make up the wind. In the future, solar sails could replace heavy propulsion systems and enable longer-duration and lower-cost missions.

The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System

In 2024, the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, a microwave-sized spacecraft, launched to test a new composite boom — a sail’s framework — made from materials that are stiffer and lighter than previous boom designs. The spacecraft has a solar sail measuring about 860 square feet — about the size of six parking spots. The seven-meter-long boom that holds out the solar sail can collapse into a bundle that would fit in your hand, which allowed it to fit compactly inside the spacecraft. The mission demonstrated the boom’s deployment and is now testing the sail’s performance using a series of maneuvers to adjust the spacecraft orbit using the sail angle. The technology could eventually allow for future sails up to half the size of a soccer field, enabling travel to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Explore NASA's Sun-related stories and download high-resolution images of the solar system, agency missions, and more.

Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3)

Just as a sailboat is powered by wind in a sail, solar sails employ the pressure of sunlight for propulsion, eliminating the need for conventional rocket propellant.

Oct. 2 Annular Solar Eclipse

On Oct. 2, 2024, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, casting its shadow across parts of Earth. 

Our closest star is so much more than meets the eye.

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Cornell graduate student Dana Russell plants strawberries in early September at a commercial solar farm in Ravena, New York. It is one of the active agrivoltaic research projects - the idea of growing crops while harnessing the sun's energy - around the state.

Solar panels soon may power, protect apple orchards

By blaine friedlander, cornell chronicle.

A small experimental apple orchard at Cornell’s Hudson Valley Research Laboratory may soon be topped by solar panels – which would not only track the sun to capture energy but provide a warm canopy on cooler spring days and shade the trees from excessive heat.

The research lab proposes to install a 300-kilowatt solar arrangement next spring to cover about 1,100 apple trees. The single-axis movable energy array 12 feet above the ground to take advantage of the land by producing food and power.

“Nobody in North America has ever covered an apple orchard with solar panels,” said  Jared Buono , director of the laboratory, located in Highland, New York. “This is all about farm viability.”

Agrivoltaics – the idea of growing viable crops while concurrently harnessing the sun’s energy with solar panels – is not a new concept. Buono and his colleagues aim to demonstrate how the panels can be used to protect growing apples from extreme weather, including hail, in a changing climate. To simulate solar panel conditions, for now, the researchers have installed agricultural mesh at three different heights to learn how the young, densely packed dwarf trees and fruit respond.

A mesh shade cloth covers young apple trees at Cornell's Hudson Valley Research Lab in Highland, New York. The covering simulates how solar panels may affect the trees. The lab proposes to install an array of panels above the trees next year.

By next summer, with an installed array centered over the high-density orchard, Buono can examine how varieties and rootstock react to covered or uncovered conditions.

“We’ll track the sun,” he said. “When we want to let sunlight in, we’ll be able to anti-track the panels. When we want to keep the sun off the trees – apples can get sunburned – we’ll be able to cover them.”

Through New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, signed into law in 2019, the state aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and then 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. Science and agriculture are looking for ways to help achieve those goals.

“This research could help New York meet climate goals while keeping farmers farming and keeping the food system vibrant,” Buono said. “We have options. This research is providing possibilities for growers while we produce sustainable renewable energy.”

Meanwhile, at a solar farm project in Ravena, New York, extension associate  Caroline Marschner has planted a fall crop of lettuce, spinach, radishes, strawberries and raspberries under a large commercial array of tilting, single-axis solar panels.

She received permission to plant in late August, but it took a few weeks to get the ground tilled and prepared.

This Cornell Agrivoltaics Research program – led by Marschner,  Toni DiTommaso , professor in soil and crop sciences (CALS); and  Steve Grodsky , assistant professor courtesy in natural resources and the environment (CALS) – is funded by New York state to assess how crops can flourish under existing panels. 

“In a short period of time we’ve learned a great deal about issues that producers will face farming crops in an existing solar facility,” Marschner said. “There are wires carrying electricity everywhere. There are insurance matters to understand. There are entrance and safety requirements when working around high-voltage electricity.”

In western New York, Cornell students under the guidance of  Max Zhang , the Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering, in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, found that agrivoltaics in Concord grape vineyards could create mutual benefits for growers and solar developers, while accelerating power grid decarbonization. Their research is expected to publish later this fall. 

“We’re studying all aspects of agrivoltaics so that farmers and policy makers can make informed decisions,” DiTommaso said. “It’s a different ecosystem from all perspectives, like pest management and weeds. We’ve got these solar panels, so rain will be concentrated and air movement changes. Agrivoltaics farming is so new, I have no other comparison to this system.”

DiTommaso and Grodsky are faculty fellows, and Zhang is a senior faculty fellow at the  Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability .

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Solar panels soon may power and protect apple orchards

by Blaine Friedlander, Cornell University

A small experimental apple orchard at Cornell's Hudson Valley Research Laboratory may soon be topped by solar panels, which would not only track the sun to capture energy, but provide a warm canopy on cooler spring days and shade the trees from excessive heat.

The research lab proposes to install a 300-kilowatt solar arrangement next spring to cover about 1,100 apple trees . The single-axis movable energy array 12 feet above the ground would take advantage of the land by producing food and power.

"Nobody in North America has ever covered an apple orchard with solar panels ," said Jared Buono, director of the laboratory, located in Highland, New York. "This is all about farm viability."

Agrivoltaics—the idea of growing viable crops while concurrently harnessing the sun's energy with solar panels—is not a new concept. Buono and his colleagues aim to demonstrate how the panels can be used to protect growing apples from extreme weather, including hail, in a changing climate. To simulate solar panel conditions, for now, the researchers have installed agricultural mesh at three different heights to learn how the young, densely packed dwarf trees and fruit respond.

By next summer, with an installed array centered over the high-density orchard, Buono can examine how varieties and rootstock react to covered or uncovered conditions.

"We'll track the sun," he said. "When we want to let sunlight in, we'll be able to anti-track the panels. When we want to keep the sun off the trees—apples can get sunburned—we'll be able to cover them."

Through New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, signed into law in 2019, the state aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and then 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels. Science and agriculture are looking for ways to help achieve those goals.

"This research could help New York meet climate goals while keeping farmers farming and keeping the food system vibrant," Buono said. "We have options. This research is providing possibilities for growers while we produce sustainable renewable energy."

Meanwhile, at a solar farm project in Ravena, New York, extension associate Caroline Marschner has planted a fall crop of lettuce, spinach, radishes, strawberries and raspberries under a large commercial array of tilting, single-axis solar panels.

She received permission to plant in late August, but it took a few weeks to get the ground tilled and prepared.

This Cornell Agrivoltaics Research program—led by Marschner, Toni DiTommaso, professor in soil and crop sciences (CALS); and Steve Grodsky, assistant professor courtesy in natural resources and the environment (CALS)—is focused on assessing how crops can flourish under existing panels.

"In a short period of time we've learned a great deal about issues that producers will face farming crops in an existing solar facility," Marschner said. "There are wires carrying electricity everywhere. There are insurance matters to understand. There are entrance and safety requirements when working around high-voltage electricity."

In western New York, Cornell students under the guidance of Max Zhang, the Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering, in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, found that agrivoltaics in Concord grape vineyards could create mutual benefits for growers and solar developers, while accelerating power grid decarbonization. Their research is expected to be published later this fall.

"We're studying all aspects of agrivoltaics so that farmers and policy makers can make informed decisions," DiTommaso said. "It's a different ecosystem from all perspectives, like pest management and weeds. We've got these solar panels, so rain will be concentrated and air movement changes. Agrivoltaics farming is so new, I have no other comparison to this system."

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Cornell University conducts research using apples and solar panels

ITHACA (WBNG) -- Cornell University is conducting research using solar panels to grow apples in hopes of producing clean energy.

Cornell University Hudson Valley Research Laboratory Director Jared Buono said that while this is not the first time this has been done, as France has been doing this for a decade with their grapes, it has never been with an apple orchard.

Buono added that the panels can be used to help protect budding apple trees from severe weather, allowing for more crops to develop. It also allows for the control of sunlight on the crops, as the panels will be moveable.

“We’re looking at tracking panels, which were designed to be more efficient to the incident of the angle of the sun versus the sky,” Buono said. “We would track the sun if we wanted to optimize power production or when we want to keep the sun off the plants.”

Moveability is vital to the research, apples need sun to get their color and too much sun can burn the crop.

“It’s counter-intuitive, but we will be able to share sunlight from growing from the panels to produce power, and not necessarily sacrifice yield on the food crop,” he said. “So it’s kind of a win-win situation if we can figure out how to do this.”

Buono mentioned that Rutgers University in New Jersey has done research of its own with data from the past growing season. But, the data will not come in for a few years, due to how long apple trees take to grow.

“We are talking about a perennial crop and several years to get the orchard up and running,” Buono explained. “So let’s say if we can put it in next year, probably two-to-three years before results are in.”

Copyright 2024 WBNG. All rights reserved.

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Building a Solar-Powered Future

Solar futures study draws insights from across nrel’s expertise and tools to deliver detailed analysis of solar energy’s future in united states.

The next 30 years of solar energy is likely to look very different than the past 30. Photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power are likely to continue to grow rapidly—the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) projects solar energy could provide 45% of the electricity in the United States by 2050 if the energy system is fully decarbonized—and technology costs are projected to continue to decline .

But in the coming decades, the evolution of solar energy technologies could be defined more by how they interact with other energy technologies, like wind and storage. Changes across the wider energy system, like the increased electrification of buildings and vehicles, emergence of clean fuels, and new commitments to both equitability and a more circular, sustainable economy, will shape the future of solar energy. These are just some of the key findings of the Solar Futures Study , published by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office and written by NREL. The study is based on extensive analysis and modeling conducted by NREL and synthesizes analysis across many domains to provide a balanced and rigorous assessment of the future of solar power.

“Solar can play a synergistic role across various sectors including industry, transportation, and agriculture. To better understand the future of solar across the energy system, we brought together numerous experts from across the lab.” – NREL researcher Kristen Ardani

"The study brought together expert perspectives across industry, government, nongovernmental organizations, and universities to frame its research direction," said NREL's lead of the study, Robert Margolis . "Then we used several of NREL's detailed power system modeling tools to examine how the role of solar could evolve under a set of decarbonization scenarios."

Three Visions of the Solar Future

The study uses three scenarios: a baseline case using current policies and trends; a decarbonization scenario in which the current electric power system is 95% decarbonized by 2035 and 100% by 2050; and a decarbonization-plus-electrification scenario in which the electric grid grows significantly in scale to power the electrification of buildings, transportation, and industry. With these scenarios to set the scope, NREL researchers collaborated across sectors to determine how each scenario would play out. Their results describe a future rich with opportunities for solar integration: co-optimization with electric vehicles, solar system recycling and reuse , more equitable and widespread community adoption of solar energy, and much more.

Here we dive into the study's cross-disciplinary approach and detail some of its specific findings by technology area and sector. For a broader overview of the study's high-level findings, check out this NREL-authored fact sheet .

"Solar can play a synergistic role across various sectors including industry, transportation, and agriculture. To better understand the future of solar across the energy system, we brought together numerous experts from across the lab," said NREL co-principal investigator  Kristen Ardani . "We aimed to foster new collaborations and, in doing so, studied solar energy development and integration more comprehensively than ever before."

At over 300 pages, the Solar Futures Study is definitely comprehensive but still not the full story. Seven NREL technical reports support the main study, each packed with highly detailed results from respective domains. For the curious reader, these supplemental reports dive deeper into the future of other energy technologies and sectors and their relationship to solar energy.

The Deep Dive: Solar Evolution Across Sectors

Integrated energy pathways.

This research aligns with one of NREL's critical objectives.

Like the overall study, a panel of industry experts shaped the scope of each detailed technical report. These reports were also framed by the same three decarbonization scenarios. NREL's approach to collaboration added a further degree of cohesion between reports, with individual report authors also contributing to the overall study.

Each technical report drew on its own set of NREL analysis tools, but the results came together within NREL's power grid modeling package ReEDS—the Regional Energy Deployment System . ReEDS simulates how power plants are added to and dispatched on U.S. electric grids; however, the model depends on a mix of both internal NREL data and outside data sources to estimate future demand and generation. For the Solar Futures Study , the supporting technical reports provide detailed information about the data and tools underlying the study.

The full list of deep-dive reports includes:

Research and Development Priorities to Advance Solar Photovoltaic Lifecycle Costs and Performance : Articulates PV technology research and development priorities that will drive down PV electricity costs to meet the targets required in the study scenarios. The report also examines the effects across the country if cost targets are achieved.

The Role of Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power Technologies in a Decarbonized U.S. Grid : Examines the future of concentrating solar-thermal technologies and markets. The report also discusses likely research directions and considers markets beyond electricity generation.

The Demand-Side Opportunity: The Roles of Distributed Solar and Building Energy Systems in a Decarbonized Grid : Presents opportunities to decarbonize grids quickly and cost-effectively using distributed energy resources, such as rooftop PV and demand response, and considers barriers to better use of these resources.

Maximizing Solar and Transportation Synergies : Considers technological and market pathways that will enable better use of solar electricity as fuel for rail, road, air, and maritime transportation.

The Potential for Electrons to Molecules Using Solar Energy : Examines an array of potential electrons-to-molecules products and system designs powered by sunlight or solar electricity that can be tailored to different end uses and applications.

Affordable and Accessible Solar for All: Barriers, Solutions, and On-Site Adoption Potential : Summarizes the barriers low- and medium-income households face when accessing solar energy, including financing and funding, community engagement, site suitability, policy and regulations, and resilience and recovery. The report also considers possible solutions to these barriers.

Environment and Circular Economy : Addresses environmental considerations related to solar technologies, including environmental justice issues. The report also envisions a circular economy for PV systems and details their basic life cycle phases.

The Untapped Solar Potential of Buildings

Solar energy will integrate with the buildings we live, work, and play in through two main ways: how solar systems are deployed on these buildings, and how these buildings can vary their use and storage of energy to complement solar power. Both approaches are major, largely untapped avenues of supporting decarbonization across the power grid. Today, only about 3% of solar-viable rooftops in the United States actually host PV systems. Properly operated demand-side services (energy shifting and storage) could reduce the cost of fully decarbonizing the electric grid by 22% by 2050.

Such findings emerge from NREL's solar-building analysis in The Demand-Side Opportunity: The Roles of Distributed Solar and Building Energy Systems in a Decarbonized Grid . In the report, NREL turns its award-winning Distributed Generation Market Demand (dGen™) analysis software to each decarbonization scenario to forecast the full potential for rooftop solar deployments under different electric rate structures and PV price scenarios.

The report further explores building and neighborhood opportunities to optimize energy, such as by coordinating heating, air conditioning, electric vehicle charging, energy storage, and rooftop PV. This energy orchestration, relevant in all building types from residential to commercial and industrial, was explored using two NREL tools: Urban Renewable Building and Neighborhood optimization ( URBANopt™ ) to model loads of representative buildings and districts, and Renewable Energy Optimization ( REopt™ ) to find the optimal mix of renewables for each building. Apart from finding the scale of opportunity for future decarbonization, this report provides summaries of pathways and policies for buildings to serve demand-side efficiency.

Affordable and Accessible Solar for All

Solar energy expansion promises economic and resilience benefits for many communities, but without attention to how and why communities and individuals adopt solar energy, these benefits are unlikely to be shared equitably. Overcoming past inequalities in solar access has obvious benefits to local air quality, climate change mitigation, and community opportunities. In Affordable and Accessible Solar for All: Barriers, Solutions, and On-Site Adoption Potential , NREL quantifies the opportunity on both sides—for communities and for widescale decarbonization.

Once again, the dGen software proved to be a valuable tool for considering the fine-scale factors in solar energy equity. dGen is especially good at considering the different realities that different communities experience with regard to energy costs, financial credit, cultural familiarity, and other factors described in the report. dGen quantifies the missed opportunity for rooftop solar on the homes of families with low incomes, renter-occupied and multifamily buildings, and community solar deployments.

This report provides direction on how energy equity could be prioritized to achieve quicker all-around decarbonization. One major finding is that solar adoption could be 10 times greater among low- and medium-income houses if the "split-incentive problem" were solved—the problem of homeowners lacking incentives to install solar, and renters missing potential savings from installed solar. NREL addresses possible solutions to this and other problems, proposing funding programs, policies, and other provisions already in use by communities throughout the United States.

Vehicle-Solar Synergy

Electric transportation is another outsized player in the future of solar energy. The Solar Futures Study finds that solar energy could power about 14% of transportation end uses by 2050. Solar PV couples well to electric vehicle (EV) charging: Both use direct-current electricity, which avoids efficiency losses in conversion to alternating-current electricity—a much as 26% lost, in some cases. Other vehicle-solar synergies include coordinating vehicle charging with solar availability, deploying solar at parking canopies and structures, using EV batteries for second-life storage applications, and even equipping solar PV panels directly on vehicles. Each of these possibilities is discussed in Maximizing Solar and Transportation Synergies .

"We looked at the challenges and solutions of using more solar for transportation, including some of the broader possibilities," said Ardani, who coauthored the transportation report. "With the Solar Futures Study 's scenarios to guide us, we performed modeling around EV market demand and electricity demand. Our results fed straight into the main study, showing the complete set of solutions available and how they shape solar growth."

Following from its decades-long scope, the report explores technological possibilities that are waiting in the wings, like hydrogen vehicle coordination with solar-powered electrolyzers, and timed charging schemes to coordinate EV fleet charging. After establishing the size of future markets, the report considers current barriers, technology-cost constraints, and energy equity.

An Adaptable Toolkit for Energy Scenario Analysis

The Solar Futures Study considers the next several decades of solar power with greater breadth and detail than any prior solar-focused study. But the tools that made it possible are in no way exclusive to the study; they are behind many of NREL's recent analyses of future energy systems.

With a diverse and continually validated toolkit, NREL can conduct analysis on many energy technologies and scenarios. The Interconnections Seam Study combines sector-specific forecasts into a cross-country analysis of electricity transmission capacity buildout. The Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study ( LA100 ) also uses a similar approach, providing the city with clean energy options adapted to its unique urban composition.

For even deeper analysis, NREL can combine such computational models with real power testing within the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems ( ARIES ) platform. Plugging the results of energy scenario analysis into hardware devices can de-risk technology configurations, such as those proposed in the Solar Futures Study . Together, NREL's capabilities for future energy analysis can help to both understand and design power systems that are technologically diverse, geographically varied, cost-effective, resilient, equitable, and clean.

"The Solar Futures Study goes beyond previous studies by examining how solar technologies will interact with the broader energy system as we pursue deep decarbonization," said Margolis, who led the study. "The study demonstrates how NREL's cross-disciplinary approach to modeling can provide new insights into both the challenges and opportunities we'll encounter as solar becomes a core component of our energy system."

To learn more and read the full reports, visit the Solar Futures Study web page .

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to provide federal funding to Swift Solar Inc. to perform fundamental solar photovoltaic research and development (R and D) to understand and control perovskite deposition during the manufacturing of advanced tandem solar cells for consistent high efficiency and durability. The proposed project would involve data analysis, computer modeling, and bench-scale fabrication and characterization of thin film materials, solar cells, and minimodules.

CX-031659: PIPPIN: Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Solar Cells from Prototype to Production