Solar Power and Energy Storage Systems

Abstract

Today’s energy path depends largely on fossil fuels, and we are already facing alarming consequences in terms of climate change and energy security. Solar cells have been recognized as an important alternative power source since the 1970s. Solar cells are also promising as a carbon-free energy source that can suppress global warming. The power conversion efficiency of a solar cell is well defined as the ratio between the electric power produced by the solar cell and the incident sunlight energy per unit of time. At present the highest reported cell efficiencies in laboratories are around 40%, while the power conversion efficiencies for thermal power generation can exceed 50%. This, however, by no means indicates any advantage related to thermal generation, since its resources, such as fossil fuels, are limited while solar energy is fundamentally unlimited. However, during nighttimes, we cannot get electricity from the sun, so we need some storage systems for nighttimes. Design and fabrication of electrochemical energy storage systems with both high energy and power densities as well as long cycling life is of great importance. As one of these systems, a batterysupercapacitor hybrid device (BSH) is typically constructed with a high-capacity battery-type electrode and a high-rate capacitive electrode, which has attracted enormous attention due to its potential applications in, for example, future electric vehicles, smart electric grids, and even miniaturized electronic/optoelectronic devices. Before we start research on BSH, we must study super-capacitors. So author has introduced the results of several superconductor studies in Chapters 5 and 6. In this book author has introduced several examples of solar energy applications, such as solar ships, DAB converters, and