Solar power is the generation of electricity from sunlight. This can be direct as with photovoltaics (PV), or indirect as with concentrating solar power (CSP), where the sun's energy is focused to boil water which is then used to provide power.
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Solar power had the potential to provide over 1,000 times total world energy consumption in 2008, though it provided 0.02% of the total that year. If it continues to double in use every two to three years, or less, it would become the dominant energy source this century.
The largest solar power plants, like the 354 MW SEGS, are concentrating solar thermal plants, but recently multi-megawatt photovoltaic plants have been built.
Some technologies, such as solar thermal concentrators have an element of thermal storage, such as molten salts. These store spare solar energy in the form of heat which can be made made available overnight or during periods that solar power is not available to produce electricity. Orbital solar power collection (as in solar power satellites) avoids this intermittent issue, but requires satellite launching and beaming of the collected power to receiving antennas on Earth.