Abstract
Solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV), which utilizes the full spectrum of solar energy, possesses a high theoretical system efficiency of 85.4% that well beats the Shockley-Queisser limit of traditional photovoltaics. However, the experimental efficiency reported so far is still less than 10% due to a variety of optical and/or thermal losses. Based on the system efficiency analysis, we first summarize the key components of ideal STPV, which can be divided into the material/structure level and system level. We then introduce new types of solar powered thermophotovoltaics and hybrid STPV systems integrated with other energy conversion systems. A perspective is provided at the end to discuss the challenges and opportunities.
Highlights
The sun is the predominant power source of the solar system, and its radiation power to the earth in 1 h outweighs a year’s energy consumption of the human society
In order to deal with these drawbacks, in 2014, Lenert and his co-workers first established a nanophotonic Solar thermophotovoltaics (STPV) device and witnessed a 3.2% system efficiency
The efficiency of the cell can be characterized by three factors, the ultimate efficiency, the voltage factor, and the fill factor. This was first systematically introduced by Shockley and Quiesser in their detailed balance model of solar cells,1,3 where each photon with energy hv greater than the bandgap energy hvg contributes to the electric power output hvg
Summary
The sun is the predominant power source of the solar system, and its radiation power to the earth in 1 h outweighs a year’s energy consumption of the human society. Some previous works reported narrow-band emitters based on metamaterials or photonic crystal structures.7–9 These designs normally incorporate multiple materials or complex nanostructures that lead to fragility at high temperature. Nanoscale structures tend to suffer more from lower melting temperature compared with bulk materials In conclusion to this part, two key components are vital to a satisfying performance of the STPV system: temperature control of the absorber/emitter/PV cell system and efficient radiation transportation. Efficient radiation transportation can be realized by the integration of three elements: high solar concentration which leads to low radiation loss of absorber, radiation escape problem of the emitter to cell, and a narrow-band emission of the emitter which is the key to breaking the Shockley-Quiesser limit
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