At the NASA Lewis Research Center we have developed a systems model for a general thermophotovoltaic (TPV) system. The components included in the model are a solar concentrator, a receiver, a thermal storage module, an emitter, a protective window, a filter, and a photovoltaic (PV) array. The system model requires the wavelength dependence of the optical properties of the components, together with the PV cell spectral response and the cell current‐voltage characteristics. With these inputs, the system efficiency, the emitter or filter efficiencies, the PV cell efficiency, the emitter operating temperature, and the cell output power density are calculated.In this paper we compare the performance of a variety selective emitter and filter TPV systems. The overall system model is based on the solar TPV system being developed jointly by McDonnell‐Douglas and NASA. In the current study, the concentrator, receiver, and storage parameters are fixed; only the characteristics of the emitter/filter and the PV cell are varied.We present computed results for the emitter/filter efficiency, the PV cell efficiency, and the cell output power, at a number of emitter operating temperatures, as functions of the PV cell bandgap energy. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.