Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lekbir, A, Hassani, S, Mekhilef, S, Saidur, R, Ab Ghani, MR, Gan, CK. Energy performance investigation of nanofluid-based concentrated photovoltaic / thermal-thermoelectric generator hybrid system. Int J Energy Res. 2021; 45: 9039– 9057. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.6436 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/er.6436 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Accepted author manuscript, 1.36 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
| <mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 31/05/2021 |
|---|---|
| <mark>Journal</mark> | International Journal of Energy Research |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Pages (from-to) | 9039-9057 |
| Publication Status | Published |
| Early online date | 25/01/21 |
| <mark>Original language</mark> | English |
Nanofluid can be used in a CPV/T solar collector to boost electrical and thermal performances as this technology has drawn great attention from researchers over the last decades. In a CPV/T system, the amount of collected heat could be significantly higher than the amount of electrical power. Combining thermoelectric generator (TEG) and nanofluid-based CPV/T system may result in better electrical performance than CPV/T system alone. In the present work, a nanofluid-based CPV/T-TEG hybrid system with a cooling channel was designed and tested, and the obtained performance was compared with conventional cooling methods [ie, natural cooling (CPV/TEG) and water cooling (WCPV/T-TEG) methods]. At the optimum value of solar concentration, C = 14.6, the electrical performance of the nanofluid-based concentrated photovoltaic/thermal-thermoelectric generator (NCPV/T-TEG) configuration was found to be ~89% higher than the standard PV modules. For the same concentration, the electrical performance of the above configuration was found to be ~13.9% and ~8.4% higher than CPV/TEG and WCPV/T-TEG configurations, respectively. In addition, the overall thermal energy of the NCPV/T-TEG was found to be higher by 4.98% compared to WCPV/T-TEG hybrid system. The NCPV/T-TEG configuration was found to produce 92.47%, 41.06%, and 8.8% higher daily exergy compared to standard PV cell, CPV/TEG, and WCPV/T-TEG, respectively. Overall, the proposed design of the NCPV/T-TEG hybrid system has the potential for further development in high-concentration solar systems.