Improvement of photocells by the integration of phase change materials and thermoelectric generators (PV-PCM-TEG) and study on the ability to generate electricity around the clock

Abstract

The present study aimed to improve the power generation and photocell efficiency by using phase change material and thermoelectric generator mainly. Secondary purpose of the paper was to generate the electricity at night. In other word, it has been tried to convert the system heat energy into electricity energy using a thermoelectric generator instead of losing heat. To compare the proposed system with a solo photovoltaic system in terms of solar cell temperature, efficiency, and output power, numerical simulations were developed in the same conditions. The results showed that the solar cell temperature was decreased from 74.43 °C to 53.72 °C and electricity output and solar cell efficiency of the system have been increased by 100% and 1.38%, respectively. However, the output power of this system was low during night but this system can generate electricity from thermal dissipation. Also, the impacts of packing factor, wind velocity, and the number of thermoelectric generators have been simulated to optimize the system efficiency. At packing factor ofβsc=0.4 andβsc=0.93, the thermoelectric generator efficiency was decreased from 4.32% to 0.61% and the efficiencies of solar cell were 15.88%, 16.2% and 16.42% at average wind velocities of1(m/s),2(m/s) and3(m/s), respectively. At the end, the impact of the elimination of some components of the system and performance of the system in winter have been studied. The efficiency of solar cell has been improvement 1.66% in winter in comparison to summer. Also, the maximum values for output power was 75.68 W for present system in winter.