Chapter 11
Solar Photovoltaics on Land, Water,
and Buildings
Alessandro Virtuani
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to show examples of deployment of solar PV systems in different contexts. Focus will be given to the use of PV for power generation
only, without considering the adoption of solar cells to power consumer electronic
goods or other devices. The examples treated here include ground-mounted systems,
floating PV systems;, integration of PV into the built environment, and micro PV
systems for rural regions in Africa and other continents. We finally add a few examples to show how PV can easily be integrated everywhere, as in noise barriers on
motorways, above water treatment plants, in car parks or on agricultural fields.
11.1 Solar Electricity for Powering the Word
In less than 20 years of effective solar PV deployment, starting in countries that had
introduced the necessary regulations to allow the connection of solar systems to the
grid, PV installations are growing massively and, with approximately 98 GW of new
installations in 2019, have totalled ~ 585 GW (~0.6 TW) of cumulative capacity in
the same year. Globally, the vast majority of the installations (more than 90%) are
grid-connected systems, for which reliable statistics exist. On the other hand, offgrid installations are recently experiencing a considerable boom in several regions
such as in Sub-Saharan Africa and India.
An additional segmentation of the market, distinguishes between utility-scale PV
(ground-mounted) systems and rooftop PV (or distributed PV) systems. In 2018,
globally 70% of the market is made of large utility-scale projects and 30% of smaller
rooftop PV projects [1]).
Although no clear or sharp boundaries exist, generally plants larger than 2 MW
are classified as utility-scale ones, and systems larger than 20 MW as large utilityscale plants. In very recent years, in order to benefit from economies of scale, plants
much larger than 100 MW (even targeting GW scale) are being deployed in several
A. Virtuani (B)
EPFL (PV-Lab), Neuchâtel, Switzerland
e-mail: alessandro.virtuani@epfl.ch
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Shah (ed.), Solar Cells and Modules, Springer Series in Materials Science 301,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46487-5_11
285
Solar Photovoltaics on Land, Water,
and Buildings
Alessandro Virtuani
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to show examples of deployment of solar PV systems in different contexts. Focus will be given to the use of PV for power generation
only, without considering the adoption of solar cells to power consumer electronic
goods or other devices. The examples treated here include ground-mounted systems,
floating PV systems;, integration of PV into the built environment, and micro PV
systems for rural regions in Africa and other continents. We finally add a few examples to show how PV can easily be integrated everywhere, as in noise barriers on
motorways, above water treatment plants, in car parks or on agricultural fields.
11.1 Solar Electricity for Powering the Word
In less than 20 years of effective solar PV deployment, starting in countries that had
introduced the necessary regulations to allow the connection of solar systems to the
grid, PV installations are growing massively and, with approximately 98 GW of new
installations in 2019, have totalled ~ 585 GW (~0.6 TW) of cumulative capacity in
the same year. Globally, the vast majority of the installations (more than 90%) are
grid-connected systems, for which reliable statistics exist. On the other hand, offgrid installations are recently experiencing a considerable boom in several regions
such as in Sub-Saharan Africa and India.
An additional segmentation of the market, distinguishes between utility-scale PV
(ground-mounted) systems and rooftop PV (or distributed PV) systems. In 2018,
globally 70% of the market is made of large utility-scale projects and 30% of smaller
rooftop PV projects [1]).
Although no clear or sharp boundaries exist, generally plants larger than 2 MW
are classified as utility-scale ones, and systems larger than 20 MW as large utilityscale plants. In very recent years, in order to benefit from economies of scale, plants
much larger than 100 MW (even targeting GW scale) are being deployed in several
A. Virtuani (B)
EPFL (PV-Lab), Neuchâtel, Switzerland
e-mail: alessandro.virtuani@epfl.ch
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Shah (ed.), Solar Cells and Modules, Springer Series in Materials Science 301,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46487-5_11
285