An Experimental Study on Transient Response of a Hybrid Thermoelectric–Photovoltaic System with Beam Splitter

Abstract

In the current study, the electrical responses of a thermoelectric (TE) module and a photovoltaic (PV) cell are investigated in three different systems, namely, a PV-only system, TE-only system, and hybrid TE-PV system with a beam splitter (TE-PV-BS), under variable solar irradiations demonstrating partly cloudy weather conditions. To enhance the deployment of solar energy, a predesigned beam splitter combined with the amorphous silicon TE and PV system is used in the experiments. The impact of the spectral beam splitting technology on the conversion performance of the TE module and PV cell in the hybrid system is studied and compared to the performance of the TE-only and PV-only systems. The electrical output parameters of the TE module and PV cell are obtained for the studied systems, and they are discussed in detail. The results of this work show that the power generated by the PV cell has a stepwise fluctuation similar to the variation in the concentrated solar radiation. Affected by its heat capacity, the power variation is monotonous with the TE module. The results moreover indicate that there is more power generated by the PV cell in the TE-PV-BS hybrid system than by the PV-only system. In comparison, the TE-only system produces more power than the TE module in the hybrid system. Furthermore, the TE-PV-BS hybrid system generates higher and more stable electrical power than the TE-only and PV-only systems, showing a significant advantage of the spectrum management concept.