A thermoelectric generator and water-cooling assisted high conversion efficiency polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic sy

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Zekun LIU, Shuang YUAN, Yi YUAN, Guojian LI, Qiang WANG

A thermoelectric generator and water-cooling assisted high conversion efficiency polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic system

© Higher Education Press 2020

Abstract Solar energy has been increasing its share in the global energy structure. However, the thermal radiation brought by sunlight will attenuate the efficiency of solar cells. To reduce the temperature of the photovoltaic (PV) cell and improve the utilization efficiency of solar energy, a hybrid system composed of the PV cell, a thermoelectric generator (TEG), and a water-cooled plate (WCP) was manufactured. The WCP cannot only cool the PV cell, but also effectively generate additional electric energy with the TEG using the waste heat of the PV cell. The changes in the efficiency and power density of the hybrid system were obtained by real time monitoring. The thermal and electrical tests were performed at different irradiations and the same experiment temperature of 22°C. At a light intensity of 1000 W/m2, the steady-state temperature of the PV cell decreases from 86.8°C to 54.1°C, and the overall efficiency increases from 15.6% to 21.1%. At a light intensity of 800 W/m2, the steady-state temperature of the PV cell decreases from 70°C to 45.8°C, and the overall efficiency increases from 9.28% to 12.59%. At a light intensity of 400 W/m2, the steady-state temperature of the PV cell decreases from 38.5°C to 31.5°C, and the overall efficiency is approximately 3.8%, basically remain unchanged. Received Feb. 25, 2020; accepted Jun. 5, 2020; online Dec. 10, 2020 Zekun LIU Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China; State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China Shuang YUAN, Yi YUAN School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China



Guojian LI ( ), Qiang WANG Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials of the Ministry of Education, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China E-mail: [email protected]

Keywords photovoltaic (PV), thermoelectric generator, conversion efficiency, hybrid energy systems, water-cooled plate (WCP)

1

Introduction

With the reduction of fossil fuel supply and the increase in world energy demand, the provision of a sustainable energy supply will become the main social problem [1]. As a safe and renewable clean energy source, solar energy is usually applied in both light and heat, and the cumulative capacity of the global solar photovoltaic market in 2018 increased by approximately 25% to 505 GW [2–4]. Solar energy is usually utilized by PV cells. When the visible and some near-infrared portion of the solar radiation are received on the PV cell, the light energy can be converted into electrical energy [5,6]. However, limited by the conversion efficiency of the PV technology, only a certain percentage of the incident energy absorbed is converted into electrical energy, and the rest is lost on the