BUSINESSANALYSIS A global view of solar power
Business Insights recently released an extensive report providing an global outlook of solar powered technologies looking at regional growth indicators with scenarios most likely to occur in each region. With a rapidly changing market developing an understanding of global opportunities is vital for companies trying to survive in an industry that remains dependant on support from local regions to push towards a self sustainable industry.
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olar power holds high potential for utility-scale power generation. In 2008, the potential for solar power was estimated to be 1,000 times of total global energy consumption. The Sun’s heat has been historically used in various heating application such as water heating and space heating dating back to ancient times. However the importance of solar power in electricity generation was recognized in 1954, when the first solar cell was made by when Bell Telephone Laboratories.
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The Sun is the resource for solar power and solar energy is used in two forms, one is heat (as in Concentrating Solar Power) and another is irradiance (as in Solar Photovoltaics). The efficiency of the solar power generation
significantly depends on the quality of sunlight available. The most suitable sites for solar plants can be found in Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and parts of North and South America.
Solar-based power generation technologies can primarily be divided into direct solar technologies, which generate electricity directly from the sunlight, and indirect technologies, which use the heat of the sunlight to generate electricity. In 2009, the global investment in renewables was US$150bn, with growth of 25% compared to 2008.
Most of the developed nations’ government announced various stimulus packages for supporting economic recovery. The total global installed renewable power generation capacity
www.solar-pv-management.com Issue IX 2010
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