PFI-TT: Novel Silicon Photovoltaics for Efficient and Low-cost Conversion of Heat to Electricity

这个创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是改善太阳能电池产生的能量的储存。光伏发电。提出的技术被设计用于公用事业规模的固定电力存储系统，或热电池，具有新颖的系统架构。该项目将展示一种低成本的能源储存方法，利用地球上丰富的储存材料，几乎可以在世界任何地方部署。该项目提出了一种具有新颖结构的具有成本效益的光伏电池形式。该系统以近乎完美的效率利用入射热辐射。该项目的目标是设计和展示一种可扩展的空桥硅热光伏（TPV）技术，该技术可以实现足够高的效率，从而实现热电池的部署。该项目还将探索TPV电池与高温储热介质的集成，为未来的系统级示范项目提供设计指导。总的来说，拟议的项目将提供一个更完整的理解，即空中桥梁架构如何使能源系统能够以比现有方法低得多的成本提供长时间的能量存储。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to improve storage of energy created by solar cells. photovoltaics. The proposed technology is designed for use in utility-scale stationary electricity storage systems, or thermal batteries, with a novel systems architecture. This project will demonstrate a low-cost approach to energy storage using earth-abundant storage materials and able to be deployed virtually anywhere in the world. The proposed project advances a cost-effective form of photovoltaic cell with a novel architecture. This system utilizes incident thermal radiation with near-perfect efficiency. The objective of the project is to design and demonstrate a scalable airbridge silicon thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology that achieves sufficiently high efficiencies to enable the deployment of thermal batteries. The project will also explore the integration of the TPV cells with high-temperature thermal storage media to provide design guidelines for future system-level demonstration projects. Overall, the proposed project will provide a more complete understanding of how the airbridge architecture can enable an energy system that provides long-duration energy storage at a significantly lower cost than existing approaches.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.