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Conditions for beneficial coupling of thermoelectric and photovoltaic devices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2015

Bruno Lorenzi ,
Maurizio Acciarri  and
Dario Narducci
Bruno Lorenzi*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, I-20125 Milano, Italy
Maurizio Acciarri
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, I-20125 Milano, Italy
Dario Narducci
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, I-20125 Milano, Italy
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

A possible approach to raise the efficiency of single-junction solar cells is to couple them with thermoelectric generators (TEGs). It was shown that TEG contribution to the output power is basically ruled by the characteristics of the photovoltaic (PV) material. In this study, we present a quantitative model that correlates the efficiency of the hybrid thermoelectric–photovoltaic (HTEPV) device with the energy gap and the working temperature of the solar cell. Two HTEPV structures are discussed, one capable only to recover the heat released by relaxation of hot electron–hole pairs; and a second one also capturing the low–energy part of the solar spectrum. We show that in the second case the increase of the conversion efficiency could justify the effort needed to add a TEG stage to the PV device. HTEPV constructions are also shown to enable the use of wide-gap materials that are not currently considered in PV applications.

Keywords

thermoelectricphotovoltaicthermal lossesShockley–Queisser limit
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 17: Focus Issue: Advances in Thermoelectric Materials II , 14 September 2015 , pp. 2663 - 2669
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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