Numerical study of the effect of passive cooling on the performance of photovoltaic panels integrated with thermoelectric generator modules.

This research was based on the development of a 3D numerical model to investigate the efficiency of solar energy harvesting using photovoltaic panels combined with thermoelectric generator modules (PV-TEG). The effects of different numbers and distributions of thermoelectric modules when using a passive cooling unit on the performance of PV-TEG system were thus investigated. Seven models of a hybrid system (M1-M7) with different numbers and distributions of TEG items were tested and simulated numerically, and the optimum model performance of the PV-TEG was compared with that of both photovoltaic only and photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems. Based on the results obtained, the optimum model for the hybrid system was determined to be M1. The electrical power of the PV-TE system was also found to be higher than that of the PV only and PV/T systems, by 16.3% and 1.79%, respectively, when exposed to solar radiation of 1,000 W/m2 at an ambient temperature of 25 °C. The average temperature of the PV upper surface for the M1 model PV-TEG was about 47.95 °C, whereas, the average temperature of the PV upper surface for the PV and PV/T systems were 73.3 °C and 46.76 °C, respectively. The theoretical results indicated thus suggest that the effect of passive cooling on the PV-TEG system causes performance to decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]