SBIR Phase II: Research and development of production-scale high-efficiency Thermal Photovoltaic (TPV) cells to enable ultra-low cost energy storage.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to generate inexpensive, reliable electricity through solar cells. As renewables such as wind and solar provide a new low-cost means of generating power domestically, energy storage systems capable of transforming these intermittent sources into dispatchable ones are increasingly commercially attractive. However, conventional energy storage technologies, such as advanced batteries, cannot provide the needed resiliency of on the length scale of days. Ultra-low-cost storage technologies, such as those based on thermal energy storage in earth-abundant materials, have the potential to address this large commercial opportunity. The proposed project will advance the development of a new type of heat engine to convert heat into electricity. The proposed project aims to move this thermophotovoltaic (TPV) heat engine from the lab to the market. The goal of this project is to develop large-scale and high-yield manufacturing of these cells with industrial equipment and large-area substrates. The proposed project will explore the cost-performance trade space toward the goal of high-volume production of PV material. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.