Preliminary experiment on a novel photovoltaic-thermoelectric system in summer

Compared with the PV electricity generation, the hybrid Photovoltaic-thermoelectric (PV-TE) can generate more electricity due to its ability to utilize a wider solar spectrum than the PV. The PV-TE employing micro-channel heat pipe array is a novel PV-TE-MCHP system which is capable of providing high cost performance compared to the traditional PV-TE due to the use of the micro-channel heat pipe array. In this paper, the experimental investigation of this new system in summer in Hefei city, China is presented for the first time. The comparison between this system and PV alone is made, and the details are presented. The power output, PV temperature, and the hot and cold sides temperatures of the TE are all tested. The results show that the novel system has a higher electrical output than the PV alone. The electrical efficiencies of this system during the test are all higher than 14.0% and the PV temperatures are about 20 degrees C higher than the ambient temperature. Based on this experiment, the results also verify the feasibility of the new system, which will give a valuable reference for the PV-TE design. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.