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About anilyuksel

Outgoing,Likes discovering the world!

Increasing Solar Efficiency by using nanotechnology application



Fig1 .Nanotechnology application on solar cell



Fig2 . Complex nano-patterning on solar cell




Source:US Dep. of Energy





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Designing Energy for the Future

Thermophotovoltaic, which is known as TPV, was first constructed at MIT in 1956 by Henry Kolm. TPVs convert thermal energy to electrical energy by photons. It basically consists of photovoltaic cell, absorber and thermal emitter. The temperature of the emitter changes from 1000°C to 1400°C . For the operating temperature range, the radiation it recieves is at near infrared and this emitted radiation is converted to free charge carriers by photovoltaic cells. The emitter can absorb sunlight, combustion or nuclear source. In this sense, thermophotovoltaics has provided a great deal in potential fuels.


Nowadays, there are many research going on especially to increase the efficiency of these devices which is one of the big problem because of efficient operation, large concentrations need to be considered to provide reasonable temperatures. Recently, it has been proved that theoretical efficiency of these devices reach to 40% but because of the many absorbed photons  is not convertible to usable energy their actual efficiency is around 30%. Indeed, photons can’t be absorbed to generate electricity if  their energy is  less than the bandgap of the converter; they are lost or reflected. Hence, the improvements can be made by optimizing the selective emitters in order to have an emission in a narrow wavelength range. In this way, TPVs can deal with a challenge for PVs, by using the entire solar spectrum efficiently.


Compared to other nonrenewable energy sources, TPV s have less NOx emissions and they are silent. Also, TPVs can be more efficient by enhancing the capability of unabsorbed photons recycling compared to PVs.  On the other hand, the TPVs are more complex and able to lose each energy step, lowering their efficiency. TPVs can also be used with a burner source unlike PVs and they provide on-demand energy. Also, TPVs have more reasonable operation temperatures of 1200 °C which is 0.5 eV whereas PVs have broader temperature ranges around 1800°C which is around 1.1eV. So, some materials used in PV are substantially less efficient and practical for TPVs because the blackbody spectrum is very low at these energies for emitters around that temperature range.


TPV can be used in many applications in the future such as enabling power source for remote systems, unmanned vehicles, spacecraft, man-portable power sources. Recently, TPVs have been proposed for recreational vehicles  as a hybrid powered system.It also has the ability to use multiple fuels sources which enables better sustainability. Hence, TPV would be a great alternative energy source for the next decade!


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