Memorias de investigación
Artículos en revistas:
Night time performance of a storage integrated solar thermophotovoltaic (SISTPV) system
Año:2014

Áreas de investigación
  • Ingeniería eléctrica, electrónica y automática,
  • Tecnologías de integración para ingeniería eléctrica y electrónica,
  • Células solares

Datos
Descripción
Energy storage at low maintenance cost is one of the key challenges for generating electricity from the solar energy. This paper presents the theoretical analysis (verified by CFD) of the night time performance of a recently proposed conceptual system that integrates thermal storage (via phase change materials) and thermophotovoltaics for power generation. These storage integrated solar thermophotovoltaic (SISTPV) systems are attractive owing to their simple design (no moving parts) and modularity compared to conventional Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies. Importantly, the ability of high temperature operation of these systems allows the use of silicon (melting point of 1680 K) as the phase change material (PCM). Silicon's very high latent heat of fusion of 1800 kJ/kg and low cost ($1.70/kg), makes it an ideal heat storage medium enabling for an extremely high storage energy density and low weight modular systems. In this paper, the night time operation of the SISTPV system optimised for steady state is analysed. The results indicate that for any given PCM length, a combination of small taper ratio and large inlet hole-to-absorber area ratio are essential to increase the operation time and the average power produced during the night time. Additionally, the overall results show that there is a trade-off between running time and the average power produced during the night time. Average night time power densities as high as 30 W/cm(2) are possible if the system is designed with a small PCM length (10 cm) to operate just a few hours after sun-set, but running times longer than 72 h (3 days) are possible for larger lengths (50 cm) at the expense of a lower average power density of about 14 W/cm(2). In both cases the steady state system efficiency has been predicted to be about 30%. This makes SISTPV systems to be a versatile solution that can be adapted for operation in a broad range of locations with different climate conditions, even being used off-grid and in space applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Internacional
Si
JCR del ISI
Si
Título de la revista
Solar Energy
ISSN
0038-092X
Factor de impacto JCR
3,541
Información de impacto
Volumen
108
DOI
10.1016/j.solener.2014.07.005
Número de revista
Desde la página
377
Hasta la página
389
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Participantes

Grupos de investigación, Departamentos, Centros e Institutos de I+D+i relacionados
  • Creador: Centro o Instituto I+D+i: Instituto de Energía Solar
  • Departamento: Electrónica Física