Thermal photovoltaic: new germanium TPV cells arrive to reduce costs

    Thermal photovoltaic: new germanium TPV cells arrive to reduce costs

    The forecasts on renewable energy sources are proving to be correct: year after year, research advances, technologies improve and market prices fall. This is the case of Imec, a Belgian company specializing in nanotechnologies, which has just announced the development of an innovative system for the production of thermal photovoltaic energy (ThermoPhotoVoltaic Energy, or just TPV), capable of reducing construction costs, finally making this technology is competitive and is mainly used in the field of solar thermal.



    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    The forecasts on renewable energy sources they are proving to be correct: year after year, research advances, technologies improve and market prices fall. This is the case of the imec, a Belgian company specializing in Nanotechnology, which has just announced the development of an innovative system for the production of thermophotovoltaic energy (ThermoPhotoVoltaic Energy, or only TPV), able to reduce construction costs, finally making this technology competitive.



    La TPV cells in fact, they need one very complex processing and rather rare metals (silicon, gallium, antimony, arsenic, germanium). This is because the TPV system, unlike the traditional photovoltaic, is able to convert le into energy heat radiation from any source (not just the sun), without the need for high temperatures. A useful technology in the industrial field, to exploit the heat dispersed by machinery or by boilers during operation, but also in domestic environment, in addition to the facilities of heating, to reduce heat loss and increase efficiency.

    However, the yield is still low, while the costs, by contrast, remain high. That's why the TPV cells announced by Imec, thanks to the germanium layer with which they are made - which will no longer be based on a stratification process but on simple "diffusion" (better not go into details, so trust me) - they constitute a possible breakthrough in the field of thermal photovoltaics. “We have applied our technology and our experience,” he said Jef Poortmans, Director of Photovoltaics at Imec, “To increase the mechanical efficiency of our TPV cells, obtaining an increase in energy performance and a reduction in costs”.



    Who knows, maybe in the future we will find minis TPV systems in all stores of appliances. Certainly, the environmental sustainability it also depends on this technology.

    Roberto Zambon

    add a comment of Thermal photovoltaic: new germanium TPV cells arrive to reduce costs
    Comment sent successfully! We will review it in the next few hours.