Solar Technological Progress and Use of Solar Energy in the World

Solar energy can potentially play a very important role in providing most of the heating, cooling and electricity needs of the world The sun has produced energy for billions of years. Solar energy is the solar radiation that reaches the earth. There are a variety of different technologies used in order to take advantage of solar energy. The primary solar energy technologies include photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and solar heating and cooling systems. Today solar sources provide around 10% of the energy used worldwide, but in the developing countries their share is still of the order of 40%. In 1999, installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity was 594 MWp in the world. Japan has the highest PV capacity as a result of an important program to support the development of PV markets. Japan had a PV capacity of 205 MWp in 1999.

Keywords:

• PV energy
• solar thermal
• thermal energy storage
• use of solar energy

Notes

^a Includes small amounts of distributed solar thermal and photovoltaic energy used in the commercial, industrial, and electric power sectors.

^a With major policy support.