ASE Group and NREL sets a new world record for thermophotovoltaic efficiency of > 40%

Congratulations to the ARPA-E team: Alina, Kyle, Colin, and Drew from MIT, Myles, Dan, Kevin Eric, Ryan and Michelle from NREL on setting a new world record for thermophotovoltaic (TPV) efficiency. The previous world record was 32% from last year, which was a few points higher than the record set by Dick Swanson 40 years ago (29%). However, our team recently demonstrated a peak efficiency of 41%, which is a major step forward for the thermal energy grid storage (TEGS) technology being developed in the ASE group. Exceeding 40% efficiency is remarkable because it is greater than the average efficiency of turbines in the USA, and this new demonstration opens up possibilities to use TPV for large and small scale natural gas or hydrogen based power conversion – in addition to energy storage for TEGS.