Photovoltaic power station Photovoltaic power station A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, is a large-scale photovoltaic system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power into the electricity grid. They are differentiated from most building-mounted and other decentralised solar power applications because they supply power at the utility level, rather than to a local user or users. They are sometimes also referred to as solar farms or solar ranches, especially when sited in agricultural areas. The generic expression utility-scale solar is sometimes used to describe this type of project. The solar power source is via photovoltaic modules that
Photovoltaic effect electric energy. The photovoltaic effect can also occur when two photons are absorbed simultaneously in a process called two-photon photovoltaic effect... The photovoltaic effect was first observed by French physicist A. E. Becquerel in 1839. He explained his discovery in "Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences", "the production of an electric current when two plates of platinum or gold immersed in an acid, neutral, or alkaline solution are exposed in an uneven way to solar radiation." Besides the direct excitation of free electrons, a photovoltaic effect can also arise simply due to the heating caused by absorption of the light.