Join us on November 4 at 3:30 p.m. for this Sustainable Energy Seminar presentation by Eric Tervo, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Madison.

Abstract

Solid-state heat engines offer several advantages over their traditional mechanical counterparts via compact size, quiet operation, no moving parts, and scalability. However, current commercial devices such as thermoelectrics suffer from low efficiency and challenges to further improvements. In this seminar, a different class of solid-state heat engines that utilize thermal radiation will be described. These include thermophotovoltaics, where infrared light from a heated object is converted to electricity by a photovoltaic cell. Their operation, recent performance measurements, and possible applications in a variety of energy conversion and storage scenarios will be discussed, showing that they have the potentially to significantly affect our energy infrastructure.

Registration

This event is offered both in-person at the Wisconsin Energy Institute and online through Zoom Webinar. If attending online, registration is required. Click here to register for this and all other webinars as part of the Sustainable Energy Seminar series in Fall 2024.