Friday, February 13, 2009

Green Energy : Heat to Electricity

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Energy has became one the daily need for human and society. This has lead to many research and developments programs to find and explore new energy sources. Solar cell is one of the product to convert solar (light) energy into electricity and nowadays this technology has been applied in many area i.e. power for satellite, power for parking machine, etc.

Further research and improvement has lead to a new technology called Thermo photovoltaics, invented by Researcher in MIT,. This technology converts heat into light and then into electricity.

Solar Cell : Light --> Electric
Thermophotovaltaics : Heat -->Light --> Electricity

Overall maximum theoretical conversion efficiency of a conventional solar cell is about 30 percent, or 41 percent if the sunlight is first concentrated using a mirror or lens as solar cell selectively convert certain color efficiently. Thermo photovoltaic will concentrate light to heat -up material, then this material will emits light with wavelengths that allow solar cell to convert efficiently. Overall maximum theoretical conversion efficiency of Thermo photovoltaic can be increased upto 85 percent.

This believe to be excellence choice for oil and gas industry as there are many facilities emitting hot waste gases such as gas turbine generator, compressor turbine, fire heater, etc. Besides, this may also great for the car exhaust gas.

Read more in Better Thermal Photovoltaics.
MTPV

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