About Verde Energy USA.

Solar Energy

Solar power is simply the conversion of sunlight into electricity. This conversion can occur in one of two ways, with Photovoltaic cells (PV) or using Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) which uses heat from the sun to boil water which in turn powers a generator to produce electricity. Solar power capacity is growing at a very high rate, 60% annually since 2004, with total capacity now at 21 GW (GigaWatts).  Home Solar Power is an important trend today.

Photovolatic cells have actually been in use since the 1880s and were developed out of a concern that the world would run out of coal….guess that forecast proved to be wrong. PV cells have continued to evolve over the years and there are now 14 different types of cell technology. PV solar plants tend to be smaller than CSP power plants. The largest PV plant in the world has a peak power capacity of 80MW (MegaWatts) which is less than 25% of the capacity of the largest CSP plant. It is interesting to note that most of the large PV plants are in Spain and Germany, the US does not have one plant in the top 10 in terms of generating capacity.

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) was first developed in the 1980s. A key component of CSP electric generation is the use of lenses and mirrors to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam which can then be used to heat water. The use of water in CSP electric generation creates an inherent challenge in that desert areas are often optimal locations for solar installations but clearly have limited water resources. In fact the largest CSP generation facility in the world is in the Mojave Desert in California with a peak generating capacity of 354MW (MegaWatts). It is interesting to note that outside of this facility six of the next seven largest CSP generation facilities are in Spain.