Latent heat thermophotovoltaic battery for renewables storage
Author: Emiliano Bellini
Developed by researchers in Spain, the battery uses renewable electricity to melt low-cost metals such as silicon or ferrosilicon alloys to produce and store latent heat, which is in turn used by a thermophovoltaic generator to produce power. According to its creators, the device may store electricity at a cost of €10 per kilowatt-hour for a 10MWh system. A group of scientists from the Technical University of Madrid has fabricated a latent heat thermophotovoltaic (LHTPV) battery that is able to store electricity in the form of latent heat at temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius and then convert the stored heat to electricity on demand using a thermophotovoltaic system consisting of a thermal emitter and a photovoltaic diode cell.