Experimental Studies on a Low Concentrating Photovoltaic/Thermal (LCPV/T) Collector with a Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) Module

Abstract This paper presented a low concentrating photovoltaic/thermal (LCPV/T) collector with thermoelectric generator (TEG) which is connected in series. LCPV/T produced heat and electricity while TEG transforms low-grade heat which gained from LCPV/T into high-grade electricity. In this paper, the mathematical model was built, and the test rig was established to validity the numerical model. The performance of the proposed system under different ambient conditions was studied by test rig with biaxial tracking system. Besides, the effects of environmental parameters, the economic analysis and energy saving of the system in different seasons were also analyzed. The study result showed that the PV/T collector produces the maximum temperature of domestic hot water about 52.96°C and a daily average electric power of 436.13W with daily average electrical efficiency of 14.34% in summer. By using the TEG module, another 1.68W (2.85‰ of the 436.13W) was generated in summer. In addition, the performance between LCPV/T in series and in parallel was researched. Moreover, the system had the potential of reducing the use of primary energy.