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Title: 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:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
  2. George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA
  3. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, USA
  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (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.
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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
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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.
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@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 = {Wed Jan 16 00:00:00 EST 2019},
month = {Wed Jan 16 00:00:00 EST 2019}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02341G
Copyright Statement
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Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 79 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Three parameter analysis of energy storage value: CPE, CPP, and RTE. (A) Value of arbitrage as a function of RTE. (B) Value comparison of leading energy storage technologies (* indicates not shown in C, because off the chart). (C) CPE and CPP (white shapes) of three competitive energymore » storage technologies. Arrows and black shapes indicate maximum CPP to break even. Arrow direction and length indicate NPV. The colored contour represents the RTE to break even, assuming 10% IRR, a 30 year system, and 10 hours of storage.« less
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