Thermophotovoltaic efficiency of 40.

Autor: LaPotin A; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Schulte KL; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., Steiner MA; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., Buznitsky K; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Kelsall CC; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Friedman DJ; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., Tervo EJ; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., France RM; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., Young MR; National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA., Rohskopf A; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Verma S; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Wang EN; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA., Henry A; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. ase@mit.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2022 Apr; Vol. 604 (7905), pp. 287-291. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Apr 13.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04473-y
Abstrakt: Thermophotovoltaics (TPVs) convert predominantly infrared wavelength light to electricity via the photovoltaic effect, and can enable approaches to energy storage 1,2 and conversion 3-9 that use higher temperature heat sources than the turbines that are ubiquitous in electricity production today. Since the first demonstration of 29% efficient TPVs (Fig. 1a) using an integrated back surface reflector and a tungsten emitter at 2,000 °C (ref. 10 ), TPV fabrication and performance have improved 11,12 . However, despite predictions that TPV efficiencies can exceed 50% (refs. 11,13,14 ), the demonstrated efficiencies are still only as high as 32%, albeit at much lower temperatures below 1,300 °C (refs. 13-15 ). Here we report the fabrication and measurement of TPV cells with efficiencies of more than 40% and experimentally demonstrate the efficiency of high-bandgap tandem TPV cells. The TPV cells are two-junction devices comprising III-V materials with bandgaps between 1.0 and 1.4 eV that are optimized for emitter temperatures of 1,900-2,400 °C. The cells exploit the concept of band-edge spectral filtering to obtain high efficiency, using highly reflective back surface reflectors to reject unusable sub-bandgap radiation back to the emitter. A 1.4/1.2 eV device reached a maximum efficiency of (41.1 ± 1)% operating at a power density of 2.39 W cm -2 and an emitter temperature of 2,400 °C. A 1.2/1.0 eV device reached a maximum efficiency of (39.3 ± 1)% operating at a power density of 1.8 W cm -2 and an emitter temperature of 2,127 °C. These cells can be integrated into a TPV system for thermal energy grid storage to enable dispatchable renewable energy. This creates a pathway for thermal energy grid storage to reach sufficiently high efficiency and sufficiently low cost to enable decarbonization of the electricity grid.
(© 2022. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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