Roadmap on Thermophotovoltaics for Solar Energy Conversion
Creators: name: Datas, Alejandro
name: Vaillon, Rodolphe
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: thermophotovoltaics
thermionics
energy storage
near-field radiation
molten silicon
ultra-high temperature

description: Presentation at the 22nd Sede Boqer Symposium on Solar Electricity Production, September 24-25, 2019 (Sede Boqer campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel). Abstract: Research on solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) energy conversion has experienced an intense renewed activity during the last decade. As a result of this activity, STPV conversion efficiency has increased from ~ 1 % [1] to ~ 7% [2] in less than 10 years. Consequently, STPV has just become one of the most efficient solid-sate solar thermal converters, approaching the best-performing solar thermoelectric generator (STEG) developed to date (~ 9.6 %) [3]. The potential of STPV to reach higher temperatures and conversion efficiencies, and to be combined with ultra-dense thermal energy storage, makes STPV a very appealing field of research today. In this presentation we will first describe the cooperative research activities between two European projects that aim at progressing in the research of novel thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices and systems for energy storage and conversion applications. The EU-funded FET-OPEN project AMADEUS (www.amadeus-project.eu) aims at developing hybrid thermionic-photovoltaic converters and ultra-high temperature energy storage systems based on silicon and silicon-boron phase change materials. The French national project DEMO-NFR-TPV (https://anr.fr/Project-ANR-16-CE05-0013) aims at developing a near-field TPV (nTPV) device demonstrator. Researchers of both projects have recently established a new conceptual device, the so-called thermionic-enhanced near-field TPV converter (nTiPV) [4], which theoretically enables higher power densities and conversion efficiencies than current state-of-the-art TPV devices. The presentation will focus on the design requirements of future STPV systems, and how these requirements could be accomplished with the outcomes of the research conducted in both projects. In particular, we will put an emphasis on the need to boost the power density of TPV to reach an optimum energy balance in the STPV system. We will also explain the relevance of taking into account the entire system configuration, including the storage medium, to reach high solar-to-electric overall conversion efficiencies. We will also describe our activities for establishing a European research network on (S)TPV devices. REFERENCES [1] A. Datas and C. Algora, “Development and experimental evaluation of a complete solar thermophotovoltaic system,” <em>Progress in Photovoltaics</em>, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 1025–1039, Aug. 2013. [2] D. M. Bierman <em>et al.</em>, “Enhanced photovoltaic energy conversion using thermally based spectral shaping,” <em>Nature Energy</em>, vol. 1, no. 6, p. 16068, May 2016. [3] D. Kraemer <em>et al.</em>, “Concentrating solar thermoelectric generators with a peak efficiency of 7.4%,” <em>Nature Energy</em>, vol. 1, no. 11, p. 16153, Nov. 2016. [4] A. Datas and R. Vaillon, “Thermionic-enhanced near-field thermophotovoltaics,” <em>Nano Energy</em>, vol. 61, pp. 10–17, Jul. 2019.