CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In the past, solar energy was considered a breakthrough of clean and renewable energy

source. The development of such technology is considered to be one of the key solutions in

fulfilling a Global increase in demand for energy. Solar energy which is converted to electricity,

known to be as the most widely used forms of energy is rapidly increasing in demand as most of

the world’s population uses electricity. It powers mankind’s many advancements in Science &

Technology which changed our lifestyle in the past century.

In the local context, in the Philippines where the infrastructure in power generation is

lacking in comparison to foreign countries and with an underdeveloped solar technology.

According to an article (Shead, 2017). The Philippines has a future for solar power, with strong

potential in harnessing solar energy mainly due to its geographical location. However, improving

the technology for solar energy and the distribution of power will ensure such future that may

resolve the looming energy crisis.

The Photovoltaic (PV) cells are responsible for converting solar energy from sunlight

directly to useable electrical voltages and currents through the photovoltaic effect. Despite the fact

that PV cells absorbs most of the solar radiation, only a small amount of that can be converted into

electric power by photovoltaic effect. Furthermore, the output efficiency mainly depends on the

performance of the PV cells used (Green, M.A. et.al. 2015). The remaining energy of the solar

radiation is absorbed and converted into heat which causes the Photovoltaic cell’s temperature to
rise. The increase in temperature on the solar cells significantly decreases the power output of the

cells with about a loss of 0.4-0.5% every degree Celsius. This drop in output power is mainly due

to the characteristic open circuit Voltage, which decreases by about 0.4%/°C. (US Patent No. US

8,420,926B1, 2013) to avoid this loss in power output active cooling methods are used. Such

cooling device that utilizes the heat absorbed and also convert the heat energy to usable electrical

energy is called the thermoelectric (TE) module, thereby improving the utilization of solar energy.

Basically, the energy from the sun gives two types of energy, solar radiation and heat energy, these

can be used in the generation of electricity utilizing photovoltaic cells and thermoelectric module.

(Daud, 2012).

The Seebeck effect is a phenomenon in which a temperature difference between two

different semiconductors or electrical conductors produces a voltage difference between the two

substances. The effect is applied in thermoelectric module consisting pairs of p-type and n-type

semiconducting materials that generates electricity through the formation of a thermocouple. The

innovative idea of the collection of electricity in thermal energy with the use of thermoelectric

generator have been proposed.

The proposed innovation photovoltaic-thermoelectric hybrid system, harvests wasted

thermal energy from the concentrated photovoltaic system. This can be utilized by attaching the

thermoelectric generator on the back side of the photovoltaic module. Thus, using this method to

the system can increase the efficiency of the production of electricity through concentrated solar

radiation. The efficiency of the photovoltaic-thermoelectric generator system generated more

power output and is more efficient than photovoltaic system alone (Lamba, 2016).

Studies regarding the hybrid photovoltaic-thermoelectric systems found out that this

hybrid is not a good choice for power generation but the concentrated photovoltaic-thermoelectric
hybrid systems is very suitable for the cause. When solar radiation is concentrated, the more heat

is to be collected by the thermoelectric generator, meaning more heat is going to be converted to

electrical energy (Mahmoudinezhad, 2018).

According to (Beeri, et.al. 2015) in a simulated experiment of a hybrid PV-TEG system it

is calculated that on the investigated experimental conditions about ~33% of the energy that is not

transformed into electricity by the PV cell is lost to the environment rather heating the TEG. This

loss in heat is due to design of the TEG module where the semiconductors in between the plates is

exposed to the air, thereby reducing the temperature gradient also with the production of electricity

in the TEG module. As stated by (Zhang&Xuan, 2017) the PV- TV hybrid system operating in a

vacuum could output more power than that working in normal atmosphere due to the elimination

of the natural convection. With this the researchers came up with a proposed CPV-TEG hybrid

system design that eliminates natural convection in establishing a high-performance/highly

efficient system.