Typically, if you want to convert solar energy into electrical energy, you use either photovoltaic (PV) cells, or you use the sunlight to create steam to turn a turbine. Both of these methods are well ...

Typically, if you want to convert solar energy into electrical energy, you use either photovoltaic (PV) cells, or you use the sunlight to create steam to turn a turbine. Both of these methods are well ...

Thermionic energy conversion harnesses thermal excitation to emit electrons from a hot cathode into vacuum and collect them at a cooler anode, thereby producing electrical power directly from heat. In ...

Through a process known as thermionic conversion, heat energy can be converted into electricity with very high efficiency. Because of its promise, researchers have been trying for more than half a ...

Ever drive by a power plant, gaze at its obtrusive cooling towers and think, “There goes a monument to wasted thermal energy.” Well, RTI International is heading a project to push the fold in ...

(Nanowerk Spotlight) Heat energy can be converted into electricity with very high efficiency through a temperature-induced electron flow process known as thermionic emission. The basic operating ...

A new process that simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology, say the ...

A Spanish-Italian research group has developed a solid-state thermal-to-electric energy converter based on hybrid thermionic-photovoltaics (TIPV) for different applications. It consists of a ...

Solar thermal technology [1], is promising for both small and utility scale renewable energy systems and solar thermionics [2] is an emerging technology where solar energy heats a metal such that ...

New thermionic generator overcomes the 'space-charge problem'. (Courtesy: J Mannhart/MPG) A new type of thermionic generator that turns heat or light into electrical energy has been developed by ...