Solar Energy and its Conversion Challenges

Sun is a never-ending resource of power dexterous of acceptable each and every one the energy needs of human race. The energy from the sun can be renewed into electricity or used trustily. The principal dispute however face the solar energy future is its unavailability all ‐round the year, united with its high resources cost and scarcity of the resources for PV cells. These challenges can be met by developing an efficient energy storage system and developing cheap, efficient, and profuse PV solar cells. Solar energy also has unswerving appliance in agriculture first and foremost for water treatment and irrigation. The mostly exciting leeway for solar energy is satellite power station that will be transmitting electrical energy from the solar panels in space to Earth by the use of microwave beams. Solar energy has a bright future because of the technological advancement in this field and its environmentally friendly nature. This article discusses the solar energy system as a whole and provides a comprehensive review on the direct and the indirect ways to produce electricity from solar energy and the direct uses of solar energy. The state-of-the-art procedures being employed for PV characterization and performance rating have been summarized. Moreover, the technical, economic, environmental, and storage-related challenges are discussed with possible solutions. Furthermore, a comprehensive list of future potential research directions in the field of direct and indirect electricity generation from solar energy is provided.