Title :
Sensitivity analysis of a solar thermophotovoltaic system with silicon thermal storage
Author :
Emziane, Mahieddine ; Alhosani, Mohamed
Author_Institution :
Solar Energy Mater. & Devices Lab., Masdar Inst. of Sci. & Technol. Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Abstract :
Transient simulations for solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) systems utilizing silicon as phase change material (PCM) and Er3Al5O12 as selective emitter with Ge cell are presented. A sensitivity analysis was carried out in order to study the effect on the efficiency of the STPV system of the PCM size, solar irradiance and location of the selective emitter with respect to the receiver cavity. The results show that higher efficiencies can be achieved by placing the selective emitter and the PV cell close to the receiver cavity. Also, the optimum size of the PCM depends on the amount of incident solar radiation and the storage capacity required. Furthermore, increasing the solar flux to very high value or reduce it to very small value reduces the efficiency of the overall system.
Keywords :
phase change materials; sensitivity analysis; silicon; solar cells; solar radiation; thermal energy storage; thermophotovoltaic cells; PCM; PV cell; STPV system; phase change material; selective emitter; sensitivity analysis; silicon thermal storage; solar flux; solar radiation; solar thermophotovoltaic system; transient simulation; Cavity resonators; Phase change materials; Receivers; Silicon; Steady-state; Thermal energy; Modeling; Selective emitters; Simulations; Thermal storage; Thermophotovoltaics;
Conference_Titel :
Environmental Friendly Energies and Applications (EFEA), 2014 3rd International Symposium on
DOI :
10.1109/EFEA.2014.7059993