Description

Photovoltaics is a method of energy production that uses semiconducting materials to convert sunlight into electricity thanks to the photoelectric effect.
The standard implementation of photovoltaics is the solar panel, a rectangular board made up of various small units of semiconducting material called "photovoltaic cells" that generate electricity as they're hit by sunlight.

Potential

Solar panels represent an excellent road to energetic self-sufficiency; since solar irradiation is almost ubiquitous, they allow anyone to get energy directly at home without the need of being connected to an external power grid.

Status

Photovoltaic already proved itself of being a perfectly suitable source of energy. Even though currently only a small part of the global energy supply comes from photovoltaics, this should not represent a problem for two reasons:
1) both its technical efficiency and its widespread adoption are constantly increasing;
2) a civilization based on complete self-sufficiency (like the autopian one) will have drastically inferior energy requirements compared to a centralized one (like the current one).