Spectrum splitting for efficient utilization of solar radiation: a novel photovoltaic–thermoelectric power generation system

Abstract

Standard photovoltaic solar cells (PV cells) use only about half of the light spectrum provided by the sun. The infrared part is not utilized to produce electricity. Instead, the infrared light heats up the PV cells and thereby decreases the efficiency of the cell. Within this research project, a hybrid solar cell made of a standard PV cell and a thermally driven thermoelectric generator (TEG) is being developed. The light of the sun splits at about 800 nm. The visible and ultraviolet part is transferred to the PV cell; the infrared part illuminates the thermal TEG cell. With the hybrid solar cell, the full solar spectrum is exploited. In this paper, theoretical and experimental results for improving the performance of thermoelectric elements coupled with photovoltaic modules have been presented. The proposed concepts and the experimental results have provided a key input to develop a large scale of a hybrid PV-TE system.

Theoretical Approach to Simulate Efficient Selective Solar Absorbers With Micro or Nano Structured Arrays

“…where M(T) is the term represented the influence of thermal radiation and can be considered as the thermal radiation factor. In equation (4), increasing the concentration factor C can reduce the effect of thermal radiation factor M(T), and that will increase the conversion coefficient. Thus, if M(T) is very small or C is very large, the photothermal conversion efficiency is nearly proportional to the average absorptance ā.…”

“…Both of multilayer absorbers and cermets absorbers combine the metals and dielectrics as the structure to have good ability to adjust the desired absorbing spectrum. These materials have good performance at the mid-temperature range up to the temperature about 700 ℃ [3][4][5] . The fabrication of surface texturing is accomplished by surface roughening technology.…”

Temperature distribution analysis of monocrystalline photovoltaic panel for Photovoltaic-Thermoelectric generator (PV-TEG) hybrid application

“…PV-TEG combined system has been applied in many configurations where both modules can either be physically integrated or separated. Common type of PV-TEG hybrid system developed were (1) by 859 directly combining the TE modules at the back of PV panels/cell [2][3][4] and (2) by using spectrum splitter to separate and reflect the solar photon that cannot be absorb by PV to the TEG [5][6][7][8][9][10]. The system usually consists of PV modules or panels, TEG modules and a cooling system, where different elements were added or modified to maximize the output performance.…”

Simulation of Photovoltaic Concentration with Fresnel Lens Using Simulink Matlab

“…Photon energy also greatly affects the output power of PV cells [2]. Photon energy must be greater than or greater than the gap energy so that an excitation process occurs on the module device which causes current to flow and generate output power [3]. The use of several types of optical concentrators to focus the solar spectrum to PV modules has been done by shanks et al (2016) [4] that Frensel lenses have better performance than other concentrators.…”