Comparative study of a concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric system with and without flat plate heat pipe

Abstract

Thermal management of photovoltaic cells is an essential research objective for increasing the conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic. Flat plate heat pipe is a passive cooling device capable of effectively reducing the solar cell temperature. Therefore, this study presents a numerical investigation of a hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric system with and without a flat plate heat pipe. A detailed comparative analysis of the electrical performance of the photovoltaic only, photovoltaic-thermoelectric and photovoltaic-thermoelectric-heat pipe systems is performed. The influence of solar concentration ratio, ambient temperature, wind speed and thermoelectric generator cold side temperature on the efficiency and power output of the photovoltaic only and hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems are studied using COMSOL 5.4 Multiphysics software. A three-dimensional finite element study is carried out and temperature dependent thermoelectric material properties are considered to increase the simulation accuracy. Results show that the photovoltaic-thermoelectric-heat pipe efficiency is 1.47% and 61.01% higher compared to that of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric and photovoltaic only systems respectively at a concentration ratio of 6. In addition, the photovoltaic-thermoelectric-heat pipe is recommended for highly concentrated systems because of its superior performance. Furthermore, the photovoltaic-thermoelectric system is a better alternative to the photovoltaic only system because of its enhanced performance which is second only to that of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric-heat pipe system. Results also show that ineffective cooling of the thermoelectric generator can adversely affect the performance of the hybrid systems. This study will proper valuable information on the feasibility of hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems with and without heat pipe. Finally, the three-dimensional nature of this study makes it very useful in understanding the actual temperature distribution in the hybrid systems.

Analysis of thermoelectric geometry in a concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric under varying weather conditions

“…Photovoltaic (PV) Area [28] Glass thickness [31] EVA thickness [31] Polycrystalline silicon thickness [31] TPT thickness [31] Thermoelectric generator (TEG) i The table layout displayed in this section is not how it will appear in the final version. The representation below is solely purposed for providing corrections to the table.…”

“…Temperature distribution in the layers of the photovoltaic are obtained using the three-dimensional energy equation below [28,29]:…”

A review on the performance of photovoltaic/thermoelectric hybrid generators

“…A 3‐D model of a hybrid PV‐TEG system was developed in Shittu et al, where each of the subsystem was modeled separately before fully integrating the model.…”

“…An example of PV‐TEG study where passive cooling methods (such as heat pipe and PCM) are used can be seen in a few literatures discussed as follows. Shittu et al compared the performance of a PV‐TEG system with flat plate heat pipe and without heat pipe. They developed a 3‐D model of the system using finite element method and employed COMSOL software in solving the governing equations.…”

Simulation and experiment of a PV‐MCHP‐TE system and ambient parameters impacts

“…However, the cost of traditional pair arrangement PV‐TE module is usually expensive, since TE has the appreciable higher expense and lower efficiency compared with the PV . Shittu et al revealed a PV‐TE system employing the flat plate microchannel heat pipe (MCHP) and then used the finite element method in the numerical simulation of the three dimensions to indicate the advantages of the new system, but in this simulation, the cold side temperature was set as a constant. Li et al took the test on the output characteristic of the novel PV‐TE device.…”