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Title: Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics

Journal Article · · Energy & Environmental Science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G · OSTI ID:1484812

As the cost of renewable energy falls below fossil fuels, the key barrier to widespread sustainable electricity has become availability on demand. Energy storage can enable renewables to provide this availability, but there is no clear technology that can meet the low cost needed. Thus, we introduce a concept termed thermal energy grid storage, which in this embodiment uses multi-junction photovoltaics as a heat engine. We report promising initial experimental results that suggest it is feasible and could meet the low cost required to reach full penetration of renewables. The approach exploits an important tradeoff between the realization of an extremely low cost per unit energy stored, by storing heat instead of electricity directly, and paying the penalty of a lower round trip efficiency. To understand why this tradeoff is advantageous, we first introduce a general framework for evaluating storage technologies that treats round trip efficiency, as well as cost per unit energy and power, as variables.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Renewable Energy. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1484812
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1505078
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5900-72337; EESNBY
Journal Information:
Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 12, Issue 1; ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 79 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (2)

Ultraefficient thermophotovoltaic power conversion by band-edge spectral filtering journal July 2019
Design of thermophotovoltaics for tolerance of parasitic absorption journal January 2019

Figures / Tables (5)