Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics

Amy, Caleb; Seyf, Hamid Reza; Steiner, Myles A.; Friedman, Daniel J.; Henry, Asegun

doi:10.1039/C8EE02341G

Title: Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics

Journal Article · 19 November 2018 · Energy & Environmental Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G · OSTI ID:1484812

^[1];

^[2];

^[3];

^[4]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

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.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

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

References (22)

Molten salt power towers operating at 600–650 °C: Salt selection and cost benefits Turchi, Craig S.; Vidal, Judith; Bauer, Matthew Solar Energy, Vol. 164 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2018.01.063	journal	April 2018
Pumping liquid metal at high temperatures up to 1,673 kelvin Amy, C.; Budenstein, D.; Bagepalli, M. Nature, Vol. 550, Issue 7675 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24054	journal	October 2017
Ocean Renewable Energy Storage (ORES) System: Analysis of an Undersea Energy Storage Concept Slocum, A. H.; Fennell, G. E.; Dundar, G. Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 101, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2013.2242411	journal	April 2013
Generalized Optoelectronic Model of Series-Connected Multijunction Solar Cells Geisz, John F.; Steiner, Myles A.; Garcia, Ivan IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 5, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2478072	journal	November 2015
Estimating the value of electricity storage in PJM: Arbitrage and some welfare effects Sioshansi, Ramteen; Denholm, Paul; Jenkin, Thomas Energy Economics, Vol. 31, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2008.10.005	journal	March 2009
Pumped thermal grid storage with heat exchange Laughlin, Robert B. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vol. 9, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4994054	journal	July 2017
The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates Schmidt, O.; Hawkes, A.; Gambhir, A. Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.110	journal	July 2017
Air-Breathing Aqueous Sulfur Flow Battery for Ultralow-Cost Long-Duration Electrical Storage Li, Zheng; Pan, Menghsuan Sam; Su, Liang Joule, Vol. 1, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2017.08.007	journal	October 2017
Material design and engineering of next-generation flow-battery technologies Park, Minjoon; Ryu, Jaechan; Wang, Wei Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2016.80	journal	November 2016
Equilibrium Phase Relationship between SiC and a Liquid Phase in the Fe-Si-C System at 1523–1723 K Kawanishi, Sakiko; Yoshikawa, Takeshi; Tanaka, Toshihiro MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS, Vol. 50, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.2320/matertrans.MRA2008404	journal	January 2009
40% efficient metamorphic GaInP∕GaInAs∕Ge multijunction solar cells King, R. R.; Law, D. C.; Edmondson, K. M. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 90, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2734507	journal	April 2007
Metamorphic epitaxy for multijunction solar cells France, Ryan M.; Dimroth, Frank; Grassman, Tyler J. MRS Bulletin, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2016.25	journal	March 2016
Cost-minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time Budischak, Cory; Sewell, DeAnna; Thomson, Heather Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 225 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2012.09.054	journal	March 2013
Lowering the Bar on Battery Cost Chiang, Yet-Ming; Su, Liang; Pan, Mengshuan Sam Joule, Vol. 1, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2017.09.015	journal	October 2017
Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power Seyf, Hamid Reza; Henry, Asegun Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1039/C6EE01372D	journal	January 2016
The Value of Concentrating Solar Power and Thermal Energy Storage Sioshansi, Ramteen; Denholm, Paul IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/TSTE.2010.2052078	journal	October 2010
Economic viability of energy storage systems based on price arbitrage potential in real-time U.S. electricity markets Bradbury, Kyle; Pratson, Lincoln; Patiño-Echeverri, Dalia Applied Energy, Vol. 114 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.10.010	journal	February 2014
Thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power plants Pelay, Ugo; Luo, Lingai; Fan, Yilin Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 79 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.03.139	journal	November 2017
Combined selective emitter and filter for high performance incandescent lighting Leroy, Arny; Bhatia, Bikram; Wilke, Kyle Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4989522	journal	August 2017
Some Mechanical Properties of Graphite at Elevated Temperatures Malmstrom, C.; Keen, R.; Green, L. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 22, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1700013	journal	May 1951
Estimating the cost of high temperature liquid metal based concentrated solar power Wilk, Gregory; DeAngelis, Alfred; Henry, Asegun Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vol. 10, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5014054	journal	March 2018
Highly efficient GaAs solar cells by limiting light emission angle Kosten, Emily D.; Atwater, Jackson H.; Parsons, James Light: Science & Applications, Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. e45-e45 https://doi.org/10.1038/lsa.2013.1	journal	January 2013

Cited By (2)

Ultraefficient thermophotovoltaic power conversion by band-edge spectral filtering Omair, Zunaid; Scranton, Gregg; Pazos-Outón, Luis M. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 116, Issue 31 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903001116	journal	July 2019
Design of thermophotovoltaics for tolerance of parasitic absorption Raman, Vinod K.; Burger, Tobias; Lenert, Andrej Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.27.031757	journal	January 2019