Technology Fundamentals

Understanding Solar Cells

Solar cell, photo effect, holes and photons? Explanations of the principles of a solar cell are normally hard to follow by non-experts. However, this is also possible in a clear and understandable way as you can see at the following book excerpt.

Photovoltaic Systems

This article describes the basics of direct solar electricity generation using photovoltaic systems, looking at the different cell and module types and the related technology.

Solar Thermal Water Heating

An enormous market in China, ambitious targets in the EU … but what are the basics of solar water heating? This article describes the principles and technology for using solar energy to heat water, and looks at applications for domestic hot water and space heating.

Solar Thermal Power Plants

Many people associate solar electricity generation directly with photovoltaics and not with solar thermal power. Yet large, commercial, concentrating solar thermal power plants have been generating electricity at reasonable costs for a lot of years.

Background Information

The Sun as an Energy Resource

The sun is the source of the life on our planet Earth and, directly or indirectly, is the fuel for most renewable systems. Photovoltaic and solar thermal systems, as well as solar thermal power stations, convert solar irradiation directly into useable energy. This article gives an overview of the solar energy resource.

The Final Battle

The energy transition to renewable energies comes too fast for the big German utilities. They have ignored the upcoming energy transition for many years and had installed the wrong power plants. Solar energy is going to destroy their business model right now. This is why we see the final showdown between solar energy and the classical energy industry. Solar energy seems to kick them out of the grid soon.