Performance comparison investigation on solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric generation and solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooling hybrid systems under different conditions

• Published in: International journal of sustainable energy Vol. 37; no. 6; pp. 533 - 548
• Main Authors: Wu, Shuang-Ying, Zhang, Yi-Chen, Xiao, Lan, Shen, Zu-Guo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Ltd 03.07.2018; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Cooling; Cooling systems; Energy conversion efficiency; Hybrid systems; performance comparison; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Solar cells; stand-alone pv system; Thermoelectric cooling; thermoelectric generation; Wind speed
• ISSN: 1478-6451; 1478-646X
• DOI: 10.1080/14786451.2017.1345906

The performance of solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric generation hybrid system (PV-TGS) and solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooling hybrid system (PV-TCS) under different conditions were theoretically analysed and compared. To test the practicality of these two hybrid systems, the performance of stand-alone PV system was also studied. The results show that PV-TGS and PV-TCS in most cases will result in the system with a better performance than stand-alone PV system. The advantage of PV-TGS is emphasised in total output power and conversion efficiency which is even poorer in PV-TCS than that in stand-alone PV system at the ambient wind speed uw being below 3 m/s. However, PV-TCS has obvious advantage on lowering the temperature of PV cell. There is an obvious increase in tendency on the performance of PV-TGS and PV-TCS when the cooling capacity of two hybrid systems varies from around 0.06 to 0.3 W/K. And it is also proved that not just a-Si in PV-TGS can produce a better performance than the stand-alone PV system alone at most cases.