Solar power offers a promising, renewable alternative to fossil fuels.
Solar power offers a promising, renewable alternative to fossil fuels. But solar power production is complicated and influenced by ever-changing factors like cloud coverage, the time of day, and even dust particles in the air.
Professor Mahesh Bandi of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) has co-developed a novel, standardized way of quantifying and comparing these variations in solar power. His new study, published in Physical Review Applied, may help guide the development and performance of solar photovoltaic farms – systems that harness the sun’s energy and convert it to electricity.
“We currently have no standard to compare solar photovoltaic power fluctuations because they change depending on where they are measured,” said Bandi, who works within OIST’s Nonlinear and Non-equilibrium Physics Unit. “Finding that comparative basis is extremely important.”
In Flux
Scientists use a quantity called the power spectrum to study fluctuations in solar photovoltaic power output – the energy that is generated when sunlight is converted to electricity.
Read more at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Photo Credit: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay
