A PV-Powered TE Cooling System with Heat Recovery: Energy Balance and Environmental Impact Indicators

Abstract

Over the past decades, clean and renewable energy has become a subject of great interest to both science and industry in response to the pollution caused by conventional energy sources. Its useful form should always meet the requirements of high performance and low environmental impact, while remaining within the scope of the expected functionality. The purpose of study presented in this paper was to determine the operational characteristics for a recently developed photovoltaic (PV)-powered thermoelectric (TE) cooling system with heat recovery. The characteristics of operation of the tested system were determined within the use of a specially developed measurement system. The conducted experimental research allowed describing the conditions of power supply for TE module using PV system, calculate the coefficient of performance (COP) for the whole TE cooling system with heat recovery and calculate the environmental impact indicators based on the material and energy balance used for life cycle assessment (LCA).