Analysis of a Single-Layer Thermophotovoltaic System at Moderate Temperatures

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-2001

Publication Title

Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer

Volume

15

Issue

4

First page number:

453

Last page number:

457

Abstract

A study of a parallel-plate system for thermophotovoltaic power production at moderate temperatures is reported. The impetus behind this analysis is the desire to apply systems of this type in microdevices where large temperature differences would be difficult to sustain. The emphasis is on the combination of the photovoltaic (PV) modeling (which has been relatively well documented in the literature) with the thermal transport aspects, particularly the radiative properties, which have been addressed less fully. Of the latter, the monochromatic emissivity is defined in detail. In0.8Ga0.2As is considered as the basic PV material, and two emitter surface treatments are assumed in the analysis including the gray approximation and both an idealistic and a realistic selective surface. Estimates of both the power generation and the power generation efficiency are determined. As expected for temperature differences of these magnitudes, the energy production is shown to be quite small.

Keywords

Electric power production; Photovoltaic power systems; Solar thermal energy

Disciplines

Energy Systems | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy | Power and Energy | Sustainability

Language

English

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Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

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