Abstract
Photovoltaic cells have been widely used to harvest solar energy resources. However, their efficiency still needs to be improved as they are rarely designed to consider the sun's heat and movement. No literature has been reported on the performance of the combined photovoltaic and thermoelectric generators with different solar tracking systems. In this study, we investigated the performance of photovoltaic and combined photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator systems installed on three panels consisting of fixed, 1-axis, and 2-axis solar trackers. Light-dependent resistors were mounted on the panels to receive solar radiation. A microcontroller receives the signal and drives the motor on the vertical and horizontal axis to follow the sun's movement according to its azimuth and altitude angle. Thermocouples were used to record the temperature of the photovoltaic and thermoelectric generator surfaces. The experiment was conducted in Magetan City, East Java, Indonesia, from 05:00 to 18:00 Western Indonesia Time. The result shows that the solar tracker can drive the panel's axis to follow the sun's motion after receiving the resistance signal from the monitored azimuth and altitude angles. The observed solar radiation using the fixed, 1-axis, and 2-axis panels is 5.639, 6.858, and 7.523 kWh/m2/d, respectively. Installing the thermoelectric generator and heat sink reduces all panels' photovoltaic temperature by 3%. The maximum power of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator system on the fixed, 1-axis, and 2-axis panels increases by 0.77 W, 1.19 W, and 1.65 W, respectively, which comes from the photovoltaic power by 84% and the thermoelectric generator power by 16%. The maximum efficiency of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator system on the fixed, 1-axis, and 2-axis panels is 10.57%, 12.53%, and 13.99%, respectively, which increases at approximately 3% from the standalone photovoltaic efficiency. The present study's result improves the photovoltaic system's design by incorporating a thermal conversion and solar tracker.
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