Solar Energy and the Global Electricity Supply Solar Energy Course 2020 Part 2 of 12

Welcome to our updated video on "Solar Energy & the Global Electricity Supply." 📜Get your course certificate📜 ********************************** http://bit.ly/solar-crash-course-ipolytek SUBSCRIBE to see more courses like this one *********************************************** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYYX-pqg9CoVhjtC4cW4DIA?sub_confirmation=1 Solar Energy and the Global Electricity Supply 2020 **************************************************** This is the 2nd video in our online professional development course for engineers entitled "Solar Energy." In this video we discuss: What is the role of solar energy in the global electricity supply today? What role will it play in the future? Find out in this video. This video is part of iPolytek's online course on solar energy. iPolytek, Professional Development Courses for Engineers. The solar cell has come a long way since it first appeared on our pocket calculators. Its potential is tremendous, capable of supplying the world's demand for energy many times over. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that solar photovoltaics will contribute about 16% of the worldwide electricity supply by 2050. Other organizations foresee it playing an even bigger role. According to Eicke Weber, Director of Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems « Between 2030 and 2050, we will see 10-30% of global energy demand covered by solar PV (photovoltaics). Right now we are in an embryonic state compared to where we are going in a few decades. » Solar power is produced by converting energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using solar cells (photovoltaics or PV), or indirectly using concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. The solar modules of a PV power plant convert light into electric current thanks to the photovoltaic effect. A CSP plant uses lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus sunlight onto a fluid. The fluid is heated to a temperature ranging from 250 - 1000 degrees Celcius and used to generate steam. Electricity is produced by a steam turbine. In 2018, the global electricity production capacity of PV was 505 GigaWatts and CSP was 5.5 GigaWatts In this course, we will focus on photovoltaic systems. At the end of 2018, photovoltaics accounted for 2.4% of the world's electricity production. As shown in this figure, 26.2% of the global electricity supply came from renewable resources. - 15.8% was from Hydro, - 5.5% from Wind - 2.4% from Solar PV - 2.2% from Bio and the remaining 0.4% from Geothermal, CSP and ocean power. In 2018, solar PV experienced a year of impressive growth, increasing in capacity by 25% over 2017. New additions surpassed 100 GW for the first time, bringing the total global capacity to 505 GW. As we see in this figure, China leads the world by far with a total installed PV capacity of 176 GW. The United States, Japan and Germany follow in the distance with about 50-60 GW each. About 75% of the world's new PV capacity was found in 4 countries, namely, China, the USA, Japan and India. Overall these statistics show us that solar PV is quickly becoming an important source of electricity on a global scale. So now the question becomes, "Could the entire world run on solar power?" Find out in our next video! See you soon and thanks for watching. References: ************ 1.International Renewable Energy Agency, (IRENA). (2016a). Letting in the Light: How solar PV will revolutionise the electricity system, https://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloa... (accessed March 10, 2017) 2. Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, (REN21). (2017). Renewables 2017 Global Status Report, http://www.ren21.net/status-of-renewa... (accessed July 6, 2018) #HowMuchElectrictyIsFromSolarPower #SolarPV #SolarPowerAroundTheWorld #SolarPowerStatistics