Leading RRI researchers and practitioners, together with policymakers and stakeholder organisations, discussed the stateof-the-art and future perspectives for RRI at the 'Pathways to Transformation' conference in June 2019, an event which was extended beyond Brussels, for instance by ca. 330 original tweets and ca. 840 retweets from ca. 160 unique accounts. In the conference, many participants expressed their concern about an uncertain future for RRI in the EC. As a result, numerous largescale EU-funded RRI projects signed a Joint Declaration 1 , urging the European Commission to make RRI a key objective of the upcoming framework programme, Horizon Europea plea to both mainstream the approach across the programme and provide specific resources for strengthening the RRI knowledge base. As the Horizon Europe programme is being forged, it is timely to present the Declaration for a broader audience.
Starting in January 2017, AMADEUS (www.amadeus-project.eu) is the first project funded by the European Commission to research on a new generation of materials and solid state devices for ultra-high temperature energy storage and conversion. By exploring storage temperatures well beyond 1000 ºC the project aims at breaking the mark of ~ 600ºC rarely exceeded by current state of the art thermal energy storage (TES) systems. AMADEUS Project, through a collaborative research between seven European partners, aims to develop a novel concept of latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems with unprecedented high energy density. One of the main objectives of the project is to create new PCMs (phase change materials) with latent heat in the range of 1000-2000 kWh/m 3 , an order of magnitude greater than that of typical salt-based PCMs used in concentrated solar power (CSP), along with developing advanced thermal insulation, PCM casing designs, and novel solid-state heat to power conversion technologies able to operate at temperatures in the range of 1000-2000 ºC. In particular, the project will investigate Silicon-Boron alloys as PCMs and hybrid thermionic-photovoltaic (TIPV) devices for heat-to-power conversion. This paper describes the project R&D activities and the main results that have been attained during the first 6 months of work. This includes the first wettability and solubility analysis of liquid Si-B alloys, the numerical simulation of silicon phase-change and heat loss analysis through thermal insulation cover, as well as the first steps for the realization of the two main AMADEUS proof-ofconcept experiments: the TIPV converter, and the full LHTES device.
The concept of intermediate band solar cell (IBSC) is, apparently, simple to grasp. However, since the idea was proposed, our understanding has improved and some concepts can now be explained more clearly than when the concept was initially introduced. Clarifying these concepts is important, even if they are well known for the advanced researcher, so that research efforts can be driven in the right direction from the start. The six pieces of this work are: Does a miniband need to be formed when the IBSC is implemented with quantum dots? What are the problems for each of the main practical approaches that exist today? What are the simplest experimental techniques to demonstrate whether an IBSC is working as such or not? What is the issue with the absorption coefficient overlap and the Mott's transition? What would the best system be, if any? © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
The three terminal heterojunction bipolar transistor solar cell (3T-HBTSC) is characterized by a muti-junction solar cell structure that resembles that of a (npn or pnp) bipolar transistor. The top cell consists of the top np (pn) layers which are made of a high bandgap semiconductor. The bottom n(p) layer is made of a low bandgap semiconductor and, together with the middle p(n) layer, forms the bottom solar cell. The transistor structure allows some simplifications in the layer structure with respect to that of conventional multi-junction solar cells since, for example, tunnel junctions are not necessary. In spite of the name, in the 3T-HBTSC the transistor effect has to be avoided since, in the limit, this would result in the voltage of the top cell being limited by the voltage of the bottom cell.
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