Context

Since the start of the industrial revolution, mankind's energy consumption has grown steadily. Today, electricity has become indispensable. In 2012, 68.1% of the world's electricity consumption was generated by non-renewable fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, while 31.9% was generated by other energy sources: nuclear and renewable. Apart from nuclear and geothermal energy, the sun is the source of almost all the renewable and fossil energy sources used by mankind for its food, domestic and industrial needs. With ~ 7 × 10 ¹⁷ kWh/year, solar energy, which arrives on earth at a fairly regular rate, represents around 6,000 times the world's current energy consumption. It is therefore a very abundant and inexhaustible resource. Directly harnessed, it would be capable of more than meeting the current needs of the world's population. In the current...