Optimum Design Consideration for Photovoltaic-Thermoelectric Hybrid Generator

Abstract

This study focuses on the development of a hybrid generator from the combination of thermoelectric module (TEM) and solar cell. The attention is on the design of the heat sink for thermoelectric power generation (TEPG) through simulation and experiment. The impact of surface ratio between TEM and heat sink as well as the effect of various fin heights is investigated at different temperatures by using ANSYS software, while a number of experiments is carried out to study the output characteristics of TEM. This paper shows how the hot side temperature affects the output performance of TEM. Finally, the data from the simulation and the experiment yields the prototype with 256 cm2 heat sink capable of producing 1-4.5 W at 200 °C from TEMs, and 2.3 W from 128 cm2 crystalline silicon solar cell under the global AM1.5 spectra (1000 W/m2).