Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, USA
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1484812
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1505078
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5900-72337
Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692; EESNBY
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Energy & Environmental Science
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Energy & Environmental Science Journal Volume: 12 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 25 ENERGY STORAGE; energy storage; thermophotovoltaics; high temperature thermal storage
Citation Formats
Amy, Caleb, Seyf, Hamid Reza, Steiner, Myles A., Friedman, Daniel J., and Henry, Asegun. Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics. United Kingdom: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1039/C8EE02341G.
Amy, Caleb, Seyf, Hamid Reza, Steiner, Myles A., Friedman, Daniel J., & Henry, Asegun. Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G
Amy, Caleb, Seyf, Hamid Reza, Steiner, Myles A., Friedman, Daniel J., and Henry, Asegun. Wed .
"Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G.
@article{osti_1484812,
title = {Thermal energy grid storage using multi-junction photovoltaics},
author = {Amy, Caleb and Seyf, Hamid Reza and Steiner, Myles A. and Friedman, Daniel J. and Henry, Asegun},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1039/C8EE02341G},
journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
number = 1,
volume = 12,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {2019},
month = {1}
}
https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

Works referenced in this record:
Molten salt power towers operating at 600–650 °C: Salt selection and cost benefits
journal, April 2018
- Turchi, Craig S.; Vidal, Judith; Bauer, Matthew
- Solar Energy, Vol. 164
Pumping liquid metal at high temperatures up to 1,673 kelvin
journal, October 2017
- Amy, C.; Budenstein, D.; Bagepalli, M.
- Nature, Vol. 550, Issue 7675
Ocean Renewable Energy Storage (ORES) System: Analysis of an Undersea Energy Storage Concept
journal, April 2013
- Slocum, A. H.; Fennell, G. E.; Dundar, G.
- Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 101, Issue 4
Generalized Optoelectronic Model of Series-Connected Multijunction Solar Cells
journal, November 2015
- Geisz, John F.; Steiner, Myles A.; Garcia, Ivan
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 5, Issue 6
Estimating the value of electricity storage in PJM: Arbitrage and some welfare effects
journal, March 2009
- Sioshansi, Ramteen; Denholm, Paul; Jenkin, Thomas
- Energy Economics, Vol. 31, Issue 2
Pumped thermal grid storage with heat exchange
journal, July 2017
- Laughlin, Robert B.
- Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vol. 9, Issue 4
The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates
journal, July 2017
- Schmidt, O.; Hawkes, A.; Gambhir, A.
- Nature Energy, Vol. 2, Issue 8
Air-Breathing Aqueous Sulfur Flow Battery for Ultralow-Cost Long-Duration Electrical Storage
journal, October 2017
- Li, Zheng; Pan, Menghsuan Sam; Su, Liang
- Joule, Vol. 1, Issue 2
Material design and engineering of next-generation flow-battery technologies
journal, November 2016
- Park, Minjoon; Ryu, Jaechan; Wang, Wei
- Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 1
Equilibrium Phase Relationship between SiC and a Liquid Phase in the Fe-Si-C System at 1523–1723 K
journal, January 2009
- Kawanishi, Sakiko; Yoshikawa, Takeshi; Tanaka, Toshihiro
- MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS, Vol. 50, Issue 4
40% efficient metamorphic GaInP∕GaInAs∕Ge multijunction solar cells
journal, April 2007
- King, R. R.; Law, D. C.; Edmondson, K. M.
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 90, Issue 18
Metamorphic epitaxy for multijunction solar cells
journal, March 2016
- France, Ryan M.; Dimroth, Frank; Grassman, Tyler J.
- MRS Bulletin, Vol. 41, Issue 3
Cost-minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time
journal, March 2013
- Budischak, Cory; Sewell, DeAnna; Thomson, Heather
- Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 225
Lowering the Bar on Battery Cost
journal, October 2017
- Chiang, Yet-Ming; Su, Liang; Pan, Mengshuan Sam
- Joule, Vol. 1, Issue 2
Thermophotovoltaics: a potential pathway to high efficiency concentrated solar power
journal, January 2016
- Seyf, Hamid Reza; Henry, Asegun
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 8
The Value of Concentrating Solar Power and Thermal Energy Storage
journal, October 2010
- Sioshansi, Ramteen; Denholm, Paul
- IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Economic viability of energy storage systems based on price arbitrage potential in real-time U.S. electricity markets
journal, February 2014
- Bradbury, Kyle; Pratson, Lincoln; Patiño-Echeverri, Dalia
- Applied Energy, Vol. 114
Thermal energy storage systems for concentrated solar power plants
journal, November 2017
- Pelay, Ugo; Luo, Lingai; Fan, Yilin
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 79
Combined selective emitter and filter for high performance incandescent lighting
journal, August 2017
- Leroy, Arny; Bhatia, Bikram; Wilke, Kyle
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 9
Some Mechanical Properties of Graphite at Elevated Temperatures
journal, May 1951
- Malmstrom, C.; Keen, R.; Green, L.
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 22, Issue 5
Estimating the cost of high temperature liquid metal based concentrated solar power
journal, March 2018
- Wilk, Gregory; DeAngelis, Alfred; Henry, Asegun
- Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Vol. 10, Issue 2
Highly efficient GaAs solar cells by limiting light emission angle
journal, January 2013
- Kosten, Emily D.; Atwater, Jackson H.; Parsons, James
- Light: Science & Applications, Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. e45-e45
Works referencing / citing this record:
Ultraefficient thermophotovoltaic power conversion by band-edge spectral filtering
journal, July 2019
- Omair, Zunaid; Scranton, Gregg; Pazos-Outón, Luis M.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 116, Issue 31
Design of thermophotovoltaics for tolerance of parasitic absorption
journal, January 2019
- Raman, Vinod K.; Burger, Tobias; Lenert, Andrej
- Optics Express, Vol. 27, Issue 22
Figures / Tables found in this record: