Internally-Heated Thermal and Externally-Cool Photovoltaic Cascade Solar Energy System for Full Solar Spectrum Utilization

摘要

A single-stack, solar power receiver comprising both a thermal absorber layer and a photovoltaic cell layer. The stack includes an aerogel layer, that is optically transparent and thermally insulating (“OTTI”); a spectrally selective high thermal conductivity (“SSTC”) thermal absorber layer; a bottom OTTI layer; and a PV cell layer. The SSTC layer includes a set of fins that substantially blocks solar radiation absorption in the band where PV cells are most sensitive. Photons with energies above or below this band block range are absorbed by the fins and the absorbed heat is conducted to pipes in the fin structure carrying a heated thermal working fluid to heat storage. Photons with energy in the band block range are reflected by the SSTC fins to the PV cell layer. The bottom OTTI aerogel layer keeps the PV cell operating near ambient temperature. The PV cell converts incident solar radiation to electrical energy.

主权项

1. A single-stack solar power receiver comprising:
a. a first aerogel layer, the first aerogel layer including an aerogel that is optically-transparent in the visible and the near-infrared frequency range and thermally-insulating in the mid- and far-IR range; b. a heat absorption layer adjacent to the first aerogel layer, comprising at least two metallic fins, the fins configured to decrease energy absorption in a given band, the endpoint of the given band in a range from 500 nm to 800 nm at the high energy end and the endpoint of the given band in a range from 900 nm to 1100 nm at the low energy end, wherein the fins are connected so that radiation in the given band is reflected and transmitted to a subsequent layer in the stack, the heat absorption layer further including pipes connected to the fins for carrying a thermal fluid; c. a second aerogel layer adjacent to the heat absorption layer; and d. a photovoltaic cell layer adjacent to the second aerogel layer.