At the present “state of the art” Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) is the best investment in Renewable Energy on a worldwide scale.
Solar PV Power Plants are designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and convert sunlight into electricity (solar array), a solar inverter to change from DC to AC, as well as mounting, cabling, and other electrical components (balance of system (BOS)). It may also use a solar tracking system to improve the system’s overall performance and include an integrated battery solution, the so-called Solar-Plus -Storage.
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is another method of harnessing the Sun’s potential, where a fluid is heated in pipes in parabolical receivers, transformed in steam that will be turbinated. Another method is to concentrate mirrors in a tower. The disadvantage of CSP over PV is that is quite expensive and difficult to operate. The advantage of CSP over PV is that it can store the heat of solar energy in molten salts, which enables these plants to continue to generate electricity whenever it is needed, at least for few hours after the sun is gone. This makes CSP a dispatchable form of solar.
In most cases, CSP technologies currently cannot compete on price with PV panels, which have experienced huge growth in recent years due to falling prices and much smaller operating costs. CSP generally needs large amount of direct solar radiation, and its energy generation falls dramatically with cloud cover. This is in contrast with PV, which can produce electricity also from diffuse radiation