Capture of Light and Heat of Solar Radiation
In previous submissions to the forum on Climate Control, I have made mention of the capture of solar radiation (sunlight), and converted, either by photovoltaic cells, into electricity, or heated water by thermal transfer.
Now research engineers in the United States, have created the means to convert the light, and heat, from the sun, directly into generation of electricity, making solar power production twice as efficient, potentially cheap enough, to directly compete with electricity generation from oil.
The coating of a semiconducting material with a thin film of the metal cesium, overcomes the existing problem, whereby, photovoltaic cells only convert photons from a small portion of the suns light spectrum, the remainder being converted into heat.
This heat energy is wasted energy, due to the fact it could not be collected, due to the high temperatures needed to power heat based conversion systems. Existing photovoltaic technology becomes less efficient as the temperature rises, whilst the new process, photon enhanced thermionic emission (PETE), excels at high temperatures.
The researchers believe that the technology enhances the efficiency of existing solar concentrators, arrays of parabolic dishes on large solar farms that can generate temperatures up to 800 degrees centigrade, by using incident light, and the heat that it produces, adding the waste heat to their existing thermal conversion systems.
Robin Burn
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