Feasibility Study on Thermoelectric Conversion to Improve Photovoltaic Operation
Abstract
Thermoelectrics (TE) is an emerging technology with a wide range of potential applications namely recapturing energy lost as wasted heat from burning fossil fuels as well as serving as a cooling agent. One viable application is to integrate thermoelectric devices with photovoltaic (PV) modules that suffer from performance issues because of heat. This study proposes a model where the TE device can help lower the temperature of the PV modules which will optimize its performance through an increase in generated output. The same device can also increase the total output power from the combined PV-TE system when the TE acts as a generator. The PV-TE system was simulated using Matlab software and results show that there is potential in using TE technology as coolant and generator improve the performance of the PV device. Experiments and actual deployment also reveal an improved output for the combined PV-TE system.
Keywords
Thermoelectric cooling/generator, Photovoltaic module, Conversion efficiency, Pv-te system, Seebeck coefficient, Temperature difference