What are the advantages and disadvantages of photovoltaic power generation?

Photovoltaic power generation is a renewable energy technology that uses light energy to convert solar radiation into electric energy. It has the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

1. Renewable clean energy: Photovoltaic power generation is a kind of renewable energy, and the solar radiation on the earth is almost infinite. Compared with traditional coal-fired or gas-fired power generation, photovoltaic power generation will not produce greenhouse gases and air pollutants, which is more environmentally friendly.

2. Quiet, low maintenance cost: the photovoltaic power generation system has no mechanical movement during operation, so it is very quiet. Compared with coal-fired or gas-fired power plants, the maintenance cost of photovoltaic power generation system is lower, mainly by cleaning and checking the status of components regularly.

3. Distributed power generation and flexibility: Photovoltaic power generation systems can be distributed in various places, including roofs, solar farmland and deserts. This distributed layout reduces the transmission loss and can flexibly adjust the scale to meet different power demands.

4. Long service life and expandability: Solar cell modules have long service life, usually working for more than 25 years, and can be expanded. The number of solar panels can be increased or decreased as needed, and the energy demand can be flexibly met.

Disadvantages:

1. Affected by weather: The efficiency of photovoltaic power generation is affected by weather conditions, such as cloudy days and cloudy nights. In rainy weather or at night, the photovoltaic power generation capacity decreases.

2. Relatively low energy density: Compared with traditional fossil fuel power generation, photovoltaic power generation has low energy density, which means that a larger area is needed to obtain the same power generation.

3. Limited resources and high cost: the production of materials such as solar cell modules required for photovoltaic power generation requires energy and resources. At present, the manufacturing and installation costs of solar cells are still high, although with the technological progress and the realization of scale effect, the costs are gradually decreasing.

4. Energy storage and network access challenges: the electricity generated by photovoltaic power generation needs to be stored or connected to the power grid. Energy storage technology is not fully mature, and the connection with power grid may involve the upgrading of power grid and the limitation of transmission capacity.

Photovoltaic power generation is affected by many factors, including meteorology, equipment parameters, installation conditions and so on. Among them, the parameters required for power generation calculation can be provided by the joint energy big data platform (xihe-energy.com).

In the platform, we can simulate a preset photovoltaic power station in a certain geographical location or restore the historical power curve of a photovoltaic power station according to meteorological data. By defining the location, time, data source and parameters of photovoltaic power station, accurate hourly power curve can be obtained.