Spectral engineering for solar-thermal and thermal-radiative systems

Increasing energy efficiency for power generation and reduction of energy consumption are two important venues to address the energy supply and global warming challenges we face today. Radiation from the sun and terrestrial heat sources can be harvested for power generation. It is also an important heat transfer channel, with which one can control in order to regulate the temperature of objects. In this thesis, we focus on strategies to harvest and control solar and thermal radiation, with the goals (1) to improve power generation efficiency using solar and thermal photovoltaics and (2) to reduce the energy consumption used to maintain human comfort in built environments. Solar radiation, as one of the most abundant energy sources on Earth, is now harvested by photovoltaics around the world. While solar photovoltaics already has reached considerable efficiencies, there is still room for improvement.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Huang, Yi,Ph. D.Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Gang Chen.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127052

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/127052