Heat converted to infrared to increase solar PV efficiency

There is lot of heat generated when sunlight falls on the solar PV cells, researchers at Stanford University have tried to convert that heat into infrared and then make the solar cells absorb that infrared emission to convert into electricity. The heat-resistant thermal emitter converts heat into infrared light. This technology is known as thermophotovoltaics. Nano material based thermal emitter design by Stanford researchers remains stable at temperatures as high temperatures up to 2,500 F. Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and his colleagues at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (Illinois) and North Carolina State University collaborated on the project. Their results are published in the Oct. 16 edition of the journal Nature Communications. Shanhui Fan said "This is a record performance in terms of thermal stability and a major advance for the field of thermophotovoltaics". "In theory, conventional single-junction solar cells can only achieve an efficiency level of about 34 percent, but in practice they don't achieve that," said study co-author Paul Braun, a professor of materials science at Illinois. "That's because they throw away the majority of the sun's energy." "Essentially, we tailor the light to shorter wavelengths that are ideal for driving a solar cell," Fan said. "That raises the theoretical efficiency of t...