US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
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Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#2A possible application of this would be backup power for fuel based heating, so that as long as you have fuel, you can get enough power to run the fans and controls.
For an energy storage system, though, 40% makes little sense.
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#3> This cell achieved an efficiency of 41.1% operating at a power density of 2.39 W cm–2 and an emitter temperature of 2,400 C.
At those temperatures, this is not very impressive.
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#4This just becomes interesting if electricity can be produced from reflected photons by the moon such as at night energy production is possible. Other than that I believe in fusion although the giant fusion reactor does help during the day. Instead of making photovoltaic more efficient they should do this with batteries
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#5A possible application of this would be backup power for fuel based heating, so that as long as you have fuel, you can get enough power to run the fans and controls. For an energy storage system, though, 40% makes little sense.
Could you elaborate on your last sentence? My naïve assumption was that theoretically the closer to 100% you could get the better, though for some applications you might take a cheaper and lower efficiency panel if it could consistently provide more than the required energy needs. With a storage system, you can just keep adding more storage to soak up higher conversion efficiencies. What am I missing? Why does 40% make little sense?
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#6> This cell achieved an efficiency of 41.1% operating at a power density of 2.39 W cm–2 and an emitter temperature of 2,400 C. At those temperatures, this is not very impressive.
For those of us unfamiliar with the properties of these materials, what would be considered impressive? Are there examples that are better?
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#7A possible application of this would be backup power for fuel based heating, so that as long as you have fuel, you can get enough power to run the fans and controls. For an energy storage system, though, 40% makes little sense.
Could you elaborate on your last sentence? My naïve assumption was that theoretically the closer to 100% you could get the better, though for some applications you might take a cheaper and lower efficiency panel if it could consistently provide more than the required energy needs. With a storage system, you can just keep adding more storage to soak up higher conversion efficiencies. What am I missing? Why does 40% ma…
Because utility-scale batteries are around 86% round trip efficiency.
Pumped storage is around 79%. 40% as a conversion efficiency alone isn't good. That's not a round-trip value; heat loss in storage has to be considered, too.
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#8> This cell achieved an efficiency of 41.1% operating at a power density of 2.39 W cm–2 and an emitter temperature of 2,400 C. At those temperatures, this is not very impressive.
> not very impressive
vs
"a higher performance than conventional solar cells, and produce 100 times more power than similarly sized devices”
You have some numbers against that to understand the buzz? Because it sounds pretty impressive? Is it comparing the wrong technology, or are the numbers off for prior performance (in this use case) or how?
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#9> This cell achieved an efficiency of 41.1% operating at a power density of 2.39 W cm–2 and an emitter temperature of 2,400 C. At those temperatures, this is not very impressive.
it's the temperature of light emitter, not of the panel
it's pretty much saying "efficient (for a photovoltaic) electricity from powerful infrared"
Sun is 6000 degrees, so most of its emergy is in different frequency
Instead, this panel is planned to be used in thermal batteries, I think the article says.
I guess main competition is steam turbine or smth?
Re: US startup begins producing 40%-efficient thermophotovoltaic cells
#10This just becomes interesting if electricity can be produced from reflected photons by the moon such as at night energy production is possible. Other than that I believe in fusion although the giant fusion reactor does help during the day. Instead of making photovoltaic more efficient they should do this with batteries
> This just becomes interesting if electricity can be produced from reflected photons by the moon such as at night energy production is possible
"referring to thermal energy grid storage (TEGS) consisting of a low-cost, grid-scale energy storage technology that uses TPVs to convert heat to electricity above 2,000 C"
You all speak in miracles here, the use case seems to be converting thermal energy and energy storage. Why the moon, and what does that have to do with regular photovoltaic efficiency?