Solar PV energy: From material to use, and the most commonly used techniques to maximize the power output of PV systems: A focus on solar trackers and floating solar panels

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are gaining more and more visibility as the world power demand is increas-ing. Unconditional power source availability, ease of implementation, and environmental friendliness of these systems are their major advantages. Nonetheless, the high initial cost and low conversion efficiency of solar PV panels, as well as the intensive use of land, stand as their major drawbacks. Over the years, several improvements have been made by manufacturers, research centers and researchers around the globe to overcome the most significant drawbacks of PV systems and to improve their performance. These improvements are made either at the materials level, such as increasing the conversion efficiency of PV panels while minimizing manufacturing costs, or at the entire system level, such as maximizing or optimizing the power drawn from PV panels. MPPT controllers, cooling systems, cleaning systems, solar tracking systems, and floating PV systems are the most popular techniques that have been introduced to increase the performance of PV systems and for making the maximum usage possible out of the available solar energy. This paper mainly focuses on PV power optimization using solar tracking and floating PV systems, as they are currently among the hot topics in solar power generation and are gaining the interest of researchers around the globe, especially floating PV systems that have emerged recently. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive review on these two technologies, including their concepts, benefits, and drawbacks, as well as a summarized review of literature on these topics. In addition to this, a brief introduction about solar PV energy from material to use is given in this paper.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

PV systems are becoming increasingly popular due to their availability, ease of implementation, and environmental friendliness. However, the high initial cost, low conversion efficiency, and intensive land use are major drawbacks. Manufacturers and researchers worldwide have made improvements at the materials and system levels to overcome these limitations and enhance performance. Techniques such as solar tracking and floating PV systems have been introduced to optimize power generation. This paper provides a comprehensive review of these technologies, their benefits, drawbacks, and relevant literature. It also gives a brief introduction to solar PV energy.