Energy Losses in Photovoltaic-Thermoelectric Hybrid System with and without Solar Concentrator

Abstract

A large part of solar irradiation is lost in different forms in the photovoltaic system hybridized with a TEG thermoelectric generator. This is disadvantageous for the best contribution of the TEG generator. The losses occur mainly on the front and rear of the PV-TEG hybrid system. They are usually radiation losses, natural convection losses, and forced convection losses due to the wind. In this paper, we studied the interaction of these different losses in both faces of the hybrid system according to different environmental factors such as solar radiation, ambient temperature, and wind speed. This study concerns two types of PV-TEG hybrid systems, the PV-TEG system with an optical concentrator and the one without an optical concentrator. It aims to determine the influence of environmental factors on these different losses and also to determine the dominant losses in both types of the PV-TEG hybrid system. The determination of the dominant losses and the estimation of their quantity makes it possible to make decisions for the optimization of these two hybrid systems, by adding solutions to reduce these dominant losses and transferring it towards the thermoelectric generator so that it can generate more electric power, and by avoiding that, these solutions strongly influence the performance of these two hybrid systems. For this purpose, an appropriate model is developed which includes all these losses.