Experimental and numerical investigation of hybrid concentrated photovoltaic – Thermoelectric module under low solar concentration

Abstract

The quick progress in solar energy technology has made it one of the most promising alternatives to conventional energy systems in recent years. In this work, in order to make efficient use of the solar energy, a hybrid system composed of the concentrated photovoltaic cell and thermoelectric generator (CPV-TEG) is studied using both experimental and numerical approaches. The experimental study is carried out under concentrated radiation of a solar simulator, and the numerical simulation is accomplished using finite volume method. The results are presented for various solar concentration (SC) values ranging from 8 suns to 37 suns. The variation of the temperatures, open circuit voltage, and short circuit current are discussed. I-V-P curves for both CPV and TEG are obtained and evaluated experimentally and numerically. The results show that contribution of the TEG in the total electrical power produced by the hybrid system enhances with increasing the solar radiation. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate that the maximum and minimum efficiency of the CPV is reached to 35.33% and 23.02%, while these values for the TEG are 1.20% and 0.63%, respectively.