A California-based company is converting stored heat into electricity. Heat2Power (H2P) uses thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology, a modular panel, for the low-cost, efficient generation of energy from stored heat.
Heat2Power believes that its technology can help provide power to industrial users at rock-bottom prices, in an environmentally friendly way.
“Thermophotovoltaic devices are very much like solar cells, except they convert heat, as opposed to sunlight, to electricity,” said co-founder Stephen Forrest, Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Physics, and Materials Science & Engineering.
The company claims that its highly efficient TPV devices can be paired with high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES) systems to add economical and sustainable on-demand capabilities to sustainable energy sources such as wind and solar, as well as provide an economical way to recycle wasted energy typical in industrial power plants.
“The amount of energy in California alone that is generated by solar but ultimately is wasted because it can’t be stored would power about 300,000 homes,” said Forrest.
While industry accounts for about 30% of all U.S. energy consumption, it also wastes about 20-50% of the energy consumed in the form of heat.
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