Specifications of Photovoltaic Pumping Systems in Agriculture

Appendix A

Photovoltaic Energy: Basic Principles

A.1 Introduction

The sun is a star which provides nearly 95% of its energy to generate nearly all the energy available on the earth (Mayor & Queloz, 1995). In fact, the earth energy is a direct or indirect conversion form of the sun’s lights. For instance, the solar heat ensures the plants evaporation-transpiration by converting the sunlight energy into storable chemical form through the photosynthesis process, which allows the fauna and flora to be maintained in the earth (Romero et al., 2014). Moreover, the sunlight is the source of generating wind and wave energies, by causing temperature difference in the atmosphere. Additionally, sunlight generates the photothermal and photovoltaic energies, ...