Development of a Hybrid PV-Thermoelectric System

The solar photovoltaic energy is one of the main renewable energy alternatives for countries to achieve a greater diversity in their energy matrix. It benefits from high levels of incident solar irradiance. However, the increase in temperature that comes with it, allied to other environmental variables lowers its overall yield. One cooling option is to use thermoelectric, or Peltier cells. This paper aims to study a hybrid system that seeks an increase of a photovoltaic module yield through its active cooling by a thermoelectric cell. Research strategies include evaluation of controlled temperature, number of thermoelectric cells for a given photovoltaic module, use of maximum power tracking algorithms together with control of the thermoelectric cells power supply to achieve an optimum point of operation. This study uses mathematical models, and simulations to show that the use of thermoelectric cells to cool off the photovoltaic module can increase its yield by up to 7% in the cases studied.