Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The performance of a combined solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermoelectric generator (TEG) system

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 120; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.solener.2015.07.035

1471-1257

Rasmus Bjørk, K. Nielsen,

Thermal properties of materials

The performance of a combined solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermoelectric generator (TEG) system is examined using an analytical model for four different types of commercial PVs and a commercial bismuth telluride TEG. The TEG is applied directly on the back of the PV, so that the two devices have the same temperature. The PVs considered are crystalline Si (c-Si), amorphous Si (a-Si), copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells. The degradation of PV performance with temperature is shown to dominate the increase in power produced by the TEG, due to the low efficiency of the TEG. For c-Si, CIGS and CdTe PV cells the combined system produces a lower power and has a lower efficiency than the PV alone, whereas for an a-Si cell the total system performance may be slightly increased by the TEG.