IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v377y2025ipds0306261924020403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards-standardization energy conversion efficiency measuring system for thermophotovoltaic cells

Author

Listed:
  • Yi, F.
  • Xu, J.M.
  • Wang, B.X.
  • Zhao, C.Y.

Abstract

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology converts thermal radiation into electricity directly based on the photovoltaic effect of TPV cells, and have enormous potential applications in waste heat recovery, grid-scale energy storage, concentrating solar-thermal power generation, etc. Currently, the lack of a standardized method for measuring energy conversion efficiency of TPV cell hinders the objective assessment and comparison of TPV cells as well as the selection of cells for diverse applications. This work theoretically and experimentally demonstrates a towards-standardization TPV cell efficiency measuring system with near-perfect blackbody incident radiation spectra in the temperature range of 600–1600 °C, which is described by Planck’s law and exhibits stability, reproducibility, and color temperatures close to those in practical TPV applications. By conducting a systematic characterization of thermal radiation and TPV cell, we show a good agreement between the calculated and the measured incident spectra, and the prediction error of the TPV cell model is less than 1.7%. In addition, we propose to use the relative error due to the deviation from the perfect blackbody spectrum to quantify the quality of a realistic incident spectrum. Compared to the conventional experiment arrangement where cells are placed directly towards the opening of high-temperature blackbody radiation source, our system, featuring an optical path configuration with an off-axis parabolic reflector, significantly reduces the relative error by three to four orders of magnitude, and those in our system is less than 0.68% for the GaSb and InAs cells. Our thorough study and the developed measurement system will shed light on the urgently needed standard evaluation method of TPV cell efficiency, which can substantially facilitate the objective appraisal of the cell’s performance and accelerate the application of efficient TPV energy conversion system.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi, F. & Xu, J.M. & Wang, B.X. & Zhao, C.Y., 2025. "Towards-standardization energy conversion efficiency measuring system for thermophotovoltaic cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PD).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:377:y:2025:i:pd:s0306261924020403
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124657
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261924020403
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.124657?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malkeshkumar Patel & Hyeong-Ho Park & Priyanka Bhatnagar & Naveen Kumar & Junsik Lee & Joondong Kim, 2024. "Transparent integrated pyroelectric-photovoltaic structure for photo-thermo hybrid power generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Tawfik, M. & Tonnellier, X. & Sansom, C., 2018. "Light source selection for a solar simulator for thermal applications: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 802-813.
    3. Dejiu Fan & Tobias Burger & Sean McSherry & Byungjun Lee & Andrej Lenert & Stephen R. Forrest, 2020. "Near-perfect photon utilization in an air-bridge thermophotovoltaic cell," Nature, Nature, vol. 586(7828), pages 237-241, October.
    4. Datas, Alejandro & Ramos, Alba & Martí, Antonio & del Cañizo, Carlos & Luque, Antonio, 2016. "Ultra high temperature latent heat energy storage and thermophotovoltaic energy conversion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 542-549.
    5. Qiu, K. & Hayden, A.C.S., 2014. "Implementation of a TPV integrated boiler for micro-CHP in residential buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 143-149.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Liu & Niu, Jianlei & Wu, Jian-Yong, 2023. "Improving energy efficiency of photovoltaic/thermal systems by cooling with PCM nano-emulsions: An indoor experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 568-582.
    2. Sharifzadeh, Esmail & Rahimi, Masoud & Azimi, Neda & Abolhasani, Mahdieh, 2024. "Thermal management of photovoltaic panels using phase change materials and hierarchical ZnO/expanded graphite nanofillers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    3. Zhu, Qibin & Xuan, Yimin & Liu, Xianglei & Yang, Lili & Lian, Wenlei & Zhang, Jin, 2020. "A 130 kWe solar simulator with tunable ultra-high flux and characterization using direct multiple lamps mapping," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    4. Sobek, Szymon & Werle, Sebastian, 2019. "Solar pyrolysis of waste biomass: Part 1 reactor design," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1939-1948.
    5. Adam, Alexandros & Fraga, Eric S. & Brett, Dan J.L., 2015. "Options for residential building services design using fuel cell based micro-CHP and the potential for heat integration," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 685-694.
    6. Habibi, Mohammad & Cui, Longji, 2023. "Modelling and performance analysis of a novel thermophotovoltaic system with enhanced radiative heat transfer for combined heat and power generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    7. Sakai, Hiroki & Sheng, Nan & Kurniawan, Ade & Akiyama, Tomohiro & Nomura, Takahiro, 2020. "Fabrication of heat storage pellets composed of microencapsulated phase change material for high-temperature applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Elharoun, O. & Tawfik, M. & El-Sharkawy, Ibrahim I. & Zeidan, E., 2023. "Experimental investigation of photovoltaic performance with compound parabolic solar concentrator and fluid spectral filter," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PA).
    9. Zhiming Gao & Philip Zoldak & Jacques Beaudry-Losique & Tony Mannarino & Jonathan Mansinger & Maysam Molana & Mingkan Zhang & Praveen Cheekatamarla & Ahmed Abuheiba & Hailin Li & Brian Fricke & Kashif, 2024. "Development of a micro-combined heat and power powered by an opposed-piston engine in building applications," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Li, Yueh-Heng & Hong, Jing-Ru, 2018. "Performance assessment of catalytic combustion-driven thermophotovoltaic platinum tubular reactor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 843-853.
    11. Praveen K. Cheekatamarla, 2021. "Decarbonization of Residential Building Energy Supply: Impact of Cogeneration System Performance on Energy, Environment, and Economics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, April.
    12. Kim, Tae Young & Kim, Hee Kyung & Ku, Jae Won & Kwon, Oh Chae, 2017. "A heat-recirculating combustor with multiple injectors for thermophotovoltaic power conversion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 174-181.
    13. Ustun, Taha Selim & Nakamura, Yasuhiro & Hashimoto, Jun & Otani, Kenji, 2019. "Performance analysis of PV panels based on different technologies after two years of outdoor exposure in Fukushima, Japan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 159-178.
    14. Murugan, S. & Horák, Bohumil, 2016. "A review of micro combined heat and power systems for residential applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 144-162.
    15. Praveen Cheekatamarla & Stephen Kowalski & Ahmad Abu-Heiba & Timothy LaClair & Kyle Gluesenkamp, 2022. "Modeling and Analysis of a Thermophotovoltaic Integrated Self-Powered Furnace," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-16, September.
    16. Datas, A. & Ramos, A. & del Cañizo, C., 2019. "Techno-economic analysis of solar PV power-to-heat-to-power storage and trigeneration in the residential sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    17. Fadaei, Niloufar & Kasaeian, Alibakhsh & Akbarzadeh, Aliakbar & Hashemabadi, Seyed Hassan, 2018. "Experimental investigation of solar chimney with phase change material (PCM)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 26-35.
    18. Fangqi Chen & Xiaojie Liu & Yanpei Tian & Jon Goldsby & Yi Zheng, 2022. "Refractory All-Ceramic Thermal Emitter for High-Temperature Near-Field Thermophotovoltaics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-9, March.
    19. Chaosheng Hu & Xingyue Liu & Huiyu Dan & Chong Guo & Maoyi Zhang & Chris R. Bowen & Ya Yang, 2025. "Quantifying the pyroelectric and photovoltaic coupling series of ferroelectric films," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Chen, Wen-Lih & Currao, Gaetano & Li, Yueh-Heng & Kao, Chien-Chun, 2023. "Employing Taguchi method to optimize the performance of a microscale combined heat and power system with Stirling engine and thermophotovoltaic array," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:377:y:2025:i:pd:s0306261924020403. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.