A Solar Thermophotovoltaic Electrical Generator for Remote Power Applications.

Abstract

This final report presents the results of an SBIR Phase I project. Several TPV converters were fabricated and tested. The converters consisted of rare earth doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) and Lutetium yttrium aluminum garnet (Lu,YAG) selective emitters and a blackbody emitter, bandpass/infrared (IR) reflector filters, and InGaAs photovoltaic (PV) cells. The operating temperature of the heat source was 1700 K. The filtered blackbody based converter was found to be the most suitable candidate for Solar TPV applications as compared to selective emitter based converters. High output power density (about 2 W/cm2) and efficiency (26.9%) were observed for this converter. The results of our Phase I project show the feasibility of the development of an STPV system with a practical total system efficiency of greater than 20% and an output power density of about 2 W/cm2.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 12, 1996
Accession Number
ADA304468

Entities

People

  • Navid S. Fatemi

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Converters
  • Efficiency
  • Electric Generators
  • Energy
  • Energy Conversion
  • Energy Storage
  • Fabrication
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Latent Heat
  • Measurement
  • Phase Change Materials
  • Quantum Yields
  • Reflectors
  • Silicon Carbide
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Energy

Readers

  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Solar Photovoltaics and Thermoelectric Devices.