Analytical evaluation of a solar thermophotovoltaic converter

Technical Report · Thu May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5305592

Edenburn, M W

A solar thermophotovoltaic (TPV) converter uses concentrated sunlight to heat a cavity-enclosed emitter to a few thousand degrees kelvin. The emitter illuminates photovoltaic cells with thermal radiation, and the cells convert the radiation into electricity. This report presents an analysis of the TPV converter so that the practicality of its future development can be addressed. The analysis parametrically considers emitter temperature, cell reflectance to radiation with energy below the cell's bandgap energy, and concentration ratio requirements. Concentration ratio is treated in a rigorous manner to determine what concentration values can be practically achieved and what influence they have on converter performance. Important conclusions reached are that an emitter temperature of 2000 K is close to optimum and a cell reflectance value of 0.98 is required for below bankgap radiation. A secondary concentrator must be used and a primary mirror quality resulting in a 4-milliradian reflected-beam dispersion must be obtained to achieve a 24% conversion efficiency.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5305592
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-1962
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERTERS
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
CONCENTRATION RATIO
EFFICIENCY
GEOMETRY
OPTICS
SOLAR CONCENTRATORS
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
THERMOPHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERSION
CONVERSION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ENERGY CONVERSION
EQUIPMENT
MATHEMATICS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion