Exploitation the waste energy in hybrid cars to improve the efficiency of solar cell panel as an auxiliary power supply

Hybrid car is an excellent solution to recover wasted energy in conventional cars. This reduces the use of global fuel consumption; therefore, help to preserve the environment from extra pollution. In this work the wasted heat energy from the exhaust system is utilized based on Peltier effect. Thermoelectric cooler (TEC) and thermoelectric generator (TEG) modules are used to cool down and improve the efficiency of a solar panel fixed on the roof of the car. Using both TEG modules mounted on the exhaust system and TEC modules mounted on solar panel will ultimately cool down the solar panel. It is shown by MATLAB simulation that solar panel efficiency is improved using such system. The efficiency was approximately doubled when the temperature difference was greater than 80 °C. A proposed model of the combination of TEG and TEC modules for appropriate use of photovoltaic panel in hybrid applications is presented in this work. Calculations of the amount of output electric power that generated from TEG on the exhaust and amount of temperature dissipated from photovoltaic panel to the heat sink were earned out; in addition, estimate of the solar panel efficiency improvement was calculated.