Researchers from MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have seen a 30 percent jump in the efficiency of a thermophotovoltaic — a semiconductor structure that turns photons emitted from a heat source into electricity in the same manner as a solar cell turns sunlight into power.
Felice Frankel via ScienceAlso Read: Wind And Solar Energy Beat Coal To Generate 38% Of Global Electricity In 2021Reported first by Science.org, they do this by feeding surplus wind or solar energy to a heating element that increases the temperature of a liquid metal bath or even a graphite block to thousands of degrees. This heat is later turned into electricity by turning into steam that drives a turbine.
The approach isn’t novel, but it has had some tradeoffs — high temperatures spike the conversion efficiency but this also causes the turbine materials to disintegrate…
Thermal Batteries Could Be Key In Efficiently Storing Wind And Solar Power On Grid
