Thermoelectric system investigation with the combination of solar concentration, greenhouse and radiative cooling for all-day power generation

Zhenning Yang, Fuqiang Wang, Zhichang Fu, Yan Dong, Huichuan Zou, Xudong Chen, Yuying Yan and Shuai Zhang

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 231, issue C

Abstract: Thermoelectric generator (TEG) can utilize solar heating to generate electricity without any fossil fuel consumption. However, conventional solar driven TEG fails to achieve high efficiency power generation for 24-h, due to the losing of solar concentration at the hot end and additional cooling capability at the cold end. Therefore, a novel TEG system with the combination of solar concentration, greenhouse and radiative cooling is proposed. With the aim to significantly increase the temperature of hot end, a dish-type concentrator is introduced to concentrate solar radiation and a greenhouse seals up heat. Radiative cooling panel is used to decrease the temperature of cold end, which can realize temperature differences of TEG at night. The eight-day outdoor experimental test indicates that the thermoelectric system achieves a maximum temperature difference of 47.5 °C and a voltage output of 1293.8 mV. The system attains the average power outputs of 3.6 W/m2 on sunny and 0.16 W/m2 on cloudy. Moreover, even at the nights of high humidity and low temperature, the system also achieves a maximum power output of 0.08 W/m2, which can enable continuous power generation throughout the day. This innovative TEG system presents a viable strategy for powering small-scale devices in remote areas.

Keywords: Thermoelectric generator; Solar energy; Radiative cooling; All-day power generation; Greenhouse effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124009716
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:231:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124009716

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120903

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 ().