Thermal management of photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator hybrid system using radiative cooling and heat pipe

Temperature regulation of photovoltaic modules is crucial for improving their efficiency. Nowadays, radiative cooling is a widely adopted passive thermal management technique for photovoltaic systems. Heat pipe and radiative cooling are two primary passive photovoltaic cooling methods employed in photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator hybrid systems. Therefore, this study proposes a novel photovoltaic-heat pipe-thermoelectric generator-radiative cooling hybrid system by applying heat pipe and radiative cooling simultaneously to control the temperature of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator hybrid system. A detailed computational model of the proposed system is developed and analyzed in the COMSOL Multiphysics. A comparative analysis of the photovoltaic module temperature drop and its efficiency enhancement between the proposed and the reference system consisting of only a photovoltaic module is performed. The effects of solar radiation, ambient tempera-ture, and wind speed on both systems are studied under the Atacama Desert and Las Vegas climatic conditions. This proposed configuration reduced the photovoltaic temperature by efficiently evacuating its residual heat using a heat pipe and then rejecting it to the atmosphere using a radiative cooler. Results show that in contrast to the reference system, the proposed system reduced the average photovoltaic operating temperature by 2 degrees C for both the summer and winter seasons of the Atacama Desert and by 13 degrees C for Les Vegas. The maximum and minimum reductions of the photovoltaic temperature in the proposed system, as compared to the reference system, are 4 degrees C and 1.5 degrees C respectively, in June and 9 degrees C and 1 degrees C respectively, in January for the Atacama Desert. The maximum PV conversion efficiency and energy production improvements as compared to the reference system are 0.8% & 1.03% respectively, (for summer), and 0.3% & 0.94% respectively, (for winter) for the Atacama Desert, and 1.8% & 7.2% respectively, for the Las Vegas environment. The expected range of LCOE for a hybrid PV-HP-TEG-RC system is found to be between 0.065-0.089 USD/kWh. This study can help in improving the energy conversion efficiency by controlling the photovoltaic temperature using passive cooling methods in harsh environmental conditions such as the desert locations.