Response of thermoelectric generators to Bi2Te3 and Zn4Sb3 energy harvester materials under variant solar radiation

S. Mahmoudinezhad, P.A. Cotfas, D.T. Cotfas, L.A. Rosendahl and A. Rezania

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 146, issue C, 2488-2498

Abstract: Some special features like having no moving parts and long lifetime and being highly reliable make thermoelectric generators (TEGs) a proper choice to convert solar energy into electricity. In this work, performance of Bi2Te3 and Zn4Sb3 solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) are studied under transient condition using both experimental and numerical approaches. Variation of the temperatures of the hot and cold sides of the TEGs, open circuit voltage, short circuit current and maximum power generation to the fluctuation of the solar radiation, simulting semi-cloudy weather, are obtained and discussed. Effect of thermoelectric material properties and geometry of the thermoelectric elements on electrical response and performance of the STEGs is invetigated. Results of the developed numerical model using finite volume method are in good agreement with the experimental data. Performance of the TEG without graphite layer and with the same solar radiation condition is investigated and compared with the TEG with graphite layer. The results show that, applying the graphite layer significantly enhances performance of the STEGs. It is found that using graphite layer enhances the efficiency of the STEG system. Furthermore, for high solar concentrations, Zn4Sb3 based STEG module has better performance compare to the Bi2Te3 based module.

Keywords: Solar radiation; Thermoelectric generators; Solar simulator; Transient response; Finite volume method; Material properties (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148119312674
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:146:y:2020:i:c:p:2488-2498

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.08.080

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().