All-day continuous power generation: Integrating radiative cooling with semi-transparent photovoltaic cells filtered concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator system

Abstract

This paper investigates the electrical performance of a hybrid semi-transparent photovoltaic cells filtered concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator system with radiative cooling (SPV-TEG-RSC). For the first time, the idea of integrating semi-transparent cells (SPV) splitter and radiative sky cooling (RSC) for a spectral splitting CPV-TEG hybrid system is explored, ensuring continuous output power over 24 h. A model for the SPV-TEG-RSC system is established and validated, and then is used to study the all-day characteristics of this solar cascade electricity generation system. The results indicate that the perovskite solar cells (PVSC) filtered SPV-TEG-RSC system exhibits higher electrical efficiency compared to CdTe- and PSC-based systems. The influences of coolant inlet temperature and mass flow rate, number of TEG modules, concentration ratio, as well as wind speed on system characteristics are examined. Results indicate that, within the TEG allowance operating temperature, the optimal number of TEG modules required for the maximum electrical efficiency is different for different concentration ratios. The system achieves the best efficiency of 14.88 % when concentration ratio is 11 suns and number of TEG modules is 1. Besides, results demonstrate that the PVSC-TEG-RSC system is superior to both PVSC-TEG and PVSC systems, because it not only obtains higher electrical efficiency but also has the capacity of 24-h operation. The electrical efficiency of the proposed PVSC-TEG-RSC system is 14.48 %, showing a 7.69 % improvement compared with the PVSC system electrical efficiency under the typical conditions. The TEG output power in PVSC-TEG-RSC system is 3.88 W, which is 6.26 times that of PVSC-TEG system.