I attended a paper given at MIT around 1980 which discussed using photovoltaic cells collecting energy from incandescent graphite in a solar collector. There i

I attended a paper given at MIT around 1980 which discussed using photovoltaic cells collecting energy from incandescent graphite in a solar collector. There is not really any advance here. The paper discussed using multiple bandgap stacked PV with backside gold reflectors, as discussed in the linked Nature paper. One of the difficulties is keeping the semiconductors cool. They definitely don't operate at 2000 degrees. One envisions a solar power tower[1] with this technology, but with more graphite mass at the collector. So, not much progress in 40 years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower