PV = photovoltaic
If the title read "silicon solar cells" it would be clearer to the layperson (like me).
Many of us read the comments to decide if the article is worth reading, so it helps.
If the title read "silicon solar cells" it would be clearer to the layperson (like me).
Many of us read the comments to decide if the article is worth reading, so it helps.
Strictly speaking, it ought to be "PhV" (compare "PhD"), but no one does that for some reason.
English has this stupid policy of keeping the original spelling of any loanword it picks up, gradually drifting closer and closer to being an ideographic script. In this case English got its Greek morphemes by way of Latin, where they'd mostly already acquired standard spellings based on the older pronunciation. In Spanish, which has a phonetic script, it's much saner: "panel fotovoltáico".
Maybe we should start calling them ΦV panels.