Peltier Cooling for Thermal Management and Efficiency Enhancement in Perovskite Solar Cells

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) offer high power conversion efficiency but suffer from thermal instability, limiting their practical viability. This study investigates the use of a Peltier thermoelectric cooler (TEC) for active thermal management to mitigate temperature-induced performance degradation. A MATLAB-based simulation model was used to analyze the thermal and electrical behavior of perovskite modules under varying conditions, with and without TEC integration. Results show that while short-circuit current density <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(J_{SC})$</tex> remainsstable, open-circuit voltage <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(Voc)$</tex>, maximum power point voltage <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$(V_{mpp})$</tex>, and output power (Pmpp) degrade significantly with rising temperature due to increased recombination. Incorporating TEC cooling effectively stabilizes device temperature, leading to notable improvements in <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$Voc$</tex> and Pmpp for both single-cell and 60-cell module configurations, especially at 320 <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathrm{K}$</tex> and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$45^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$</tex>. These findings demonstrate that TEC systems can enhance the efficiency, stability, and longevity of PSCs, offering a scalable solution for real-world applications.