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Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160

www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Optimization of a cooling system based on Peltier effect

for photovoltaic cells
Hamidreza Najafi ⇑, Keith A. Woodbury
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA

Received 6 August 2012; received in revised form 8 December 2012; accepted 29 January 2013
Available online 22 March 2013

Communicated by: Associate Editor H.-M. Henning

Abstract

Temperature increment is one of the main challenges for solar concentrating photovoltaic systems which causes significant reduction
in the cell efficiency and accelerates cell degradation. To overcome this issue, a novel cooling method by using Peltier effect is proposed
and investigated. In this approach, a thermoelectric cooling module is considered to be attached to the back side of a single photovoltaic
cell. It is assumed that the required power to run the thermoelectric cooling module is provided by the photovoltaic cell itself. A detailed
model is developed and simulated via MATLAB in order to determine the temperatures within the system, calculate the required power
to run the thermoelectric cooling module and the extra generated power by photovoltaic cells due to the cooling effect. Two approaches
are investigated to use the proposed system: in the first approach, the goal is controlling the temperature of the photovoltaic cell and keep
it under a specific limit for different conditions. In the second approach, a genetic algorithm based optimization is utilized to find the
optimal value of the supplied electrical current for the thermoelectric cooling module which leads to the maximum generated power
by the system. The result shows that using thermoelectric cooling modules can successfully keep the photovoltaic cell temperature at
a low level by using a reasonable amount of electricity.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Optimization; Photovoltaic cell; Solar energy; Temperature control; Thermoelectric cooling

1. Introduction panels. Therefore, any effort to increase the output power

The growing demand for electricity, along with rising
fossil fuels prices and increasing concerns about environ-
mental pollutants have renewed interests in renewable ener-
gies during recent years. Solar energy is one of the most
promising renewable energy sources owing to its clean
and abundant essence and the possibility of direct convert-
ing of solar irradiance into electricity by using the photo-
voltaic effect. High capital cost and low conversion
efficiency are known as the two main obstacles to globalize
the use of solar power and particularly photovoltaic (PV)
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: 290 Hardaway Hall, 401 7th Ave.,
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0276, USA. Tel.: +1 205 861 7846.
E-mail address: hamidreza.najafi@ua.edu (H. Najafi).
and improve conversion efficiency is most welcome. Con-
centrated photovoltaic technology uses lenses and mirrors
to concentrate large amount of sunlight on a small area
of photovoltaic materials and as a result generates more
electricity per unit of area in comparison with non-concen-
trated systems. Although using concentration can signifi-
cantly increase the output power of the photovoltaic
panel, the associated increase in temperature of the solar
cells due to higher incident irradiance leads to loss of effi-
ciency and cell degradation (Mbewe et al., 1985; Dalal
and Moore, 1977). Therefore, using an appropriate cooling
method to maintain the photovoltaic cells at a specified
temperature range is crucial.
Several studies have been carried out to find the most
efficient method for cooling photovoltaic panels including

0038-092X/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2013.01.026
 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160 153

Nomenclature

A surface area (m2) Greek

G solar irradiation (W/m2) gel PV efficiency
h convective heat transfer coefficient (W/K m2) eg emissivity of PV panel
I electrical current (A) s transmissivity
Ic TEC supply current (A) a absorptivity
kB Boltzman constant (1.38  1023 J/K) bc packing factor of the PV module
s TEC thermal conductivity (W/m K) r Stefan–Boltzmann constant (5.6703  108 W/
L thickness (m) m 2 K 4)
n diode quality coefficient
P power (W) Subscripts
q electrons charge (1.602  1019 C) a ambient
Qc rate of heat removal (W) bs backside of the PV module
Qh rate of heat rejection (W) cell PV cell
Qte electrically driven TEC power (W) g glass
Rm TEC electrical resistance (O) max maximum
Rjc junction to TEC thermal resistance (K/W) mpp maximum power point
Rha TEC hot side to ambient resistance (K/W) oc open circuit
Sm Seebeck coefficient (V/K) ph photocurrent
T Temperature (K) PV photovoltaic
Tc cold side temperature of the TEC module (K) ref reference
Th hot side temperature of the TEC module (K) si silicon
Tsky sky temperature (K) sc short circuit
V voltage (V) T tedlar
VW wind velocity (m/s)

passive and active cooling methods. Edenburn (1980) car-
ried out a cost-efficiency analysis of a point-focus Fresnel
lens array under passive cooling with fins. He showed that
passive cooling is more efficient as the size of the panel is
reducing. Araki et al. (2002) studied the efficiency of pas-
sive cooling method for a single solar cell. It is concluded
that good thermal contact between the cell and the heat
spreading area is crucial to keep the temperature as low
as possible. Feldman et al. (1981) studied a heat pipe
approach. Akbarzadeh and Wadowski (1996) also investi-
gated a heat pipe approach for cooling of a trough like sys-
tem. Florschuetz et al. (1981) compared using forced air
through multiple passages or water flow through a single
passage to cool the strip of solar cells. He concluded that
the water cooling is more effective and will allow users to
use higher concentration levels. A theoretical analysis of
the thermal and electrical performance of an actively
cooled system is studied by O’Leary and Clements (1980).
The cooling methods considered consist of different geom-
etries of coolant flow through extruded channels. Royne
et al. (2005) presented a comprehensive review on various
methods for cooling photovoltaic cells. It has been sug-
gested that for a single cell, passive cooling works well
enough and that for densely packed cells under high con-
centrations of more than 150 suns active cooling is neces-
sary. It is noteworthy that the insolation of the sun can
be expressed as “suns” and one sun is generally defined
as a solar radiation of 1000 W/m2. Active cooling methods
are generally more effective and also more costly. The most
common active cooling method is probably using photo-
voltaic-thermal collectors (PVTs) which are basically a
solar panel with water or air channels passing from the
back side of it. PVT systems have been widely studied since
mid of 1970 (Chow, 2010). Although there has been a lot of
development in these systems, the leakage issues, relatively
huge size, use of moving parts and providing pumping
power are still problematic specially in remote applications.
To address this issue, a novel cooling method based on Pel-
tier effect by using thermoelectric modules is proposed and
investigated in the present paper.
Thermoelectric devices can convert electricity into a
temperature difference to act as a cooler or heater. Study-
ing the simultaneous use of thermoelectric modules and
PV panels has been performed in few researches. PV tech-
nology has been used to provide the power for the solar-
driven thermoelectric refrigeration systems. Several studies
have been performed to investigate PV thermoelectric cool-
ing/refrigeration systems. A comprehensive review on these
systems can be found in Xia et al. (2007).
In the present paper, a novel cooling method for photo-
voltaic panels by using thermoelectric cooling modules
(TECs) is proposed and analyzed. A TEC module is con-
sidered to be attached on the back side of the PV cell. A
portion of the generated electricity by the PV cell is used
to run the TEC modules. A comprehensive thermal and
electrical model is developed and simulated via MATLAB
154 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160
in order to determine the values of temperatures in different
sections of the system, calculate the required power to run
the TEC module and the extra generated power by PV cell
due to the cooling effect. The more electricity feed into the
TEC module, the more cooling effect for the PV cell. Viv-
idly, there is a trade-off between the net generated power
by the system and the power spending on the TEC module.
Two approaches are considered to use the proposed sys-
tem: in the first approach, the goal is controlling the tem-
perature of the PV cell and keep it under a specific limit
under different conditions. In the second approach, a
genetic algorithm based optimization is utilized to find
the optimal value of the supplied electrical current for the
TEC module which leads to the maximum generated power
by the system. TEC modules seems to be appropriate
options to provide a cooling effect in small PV applications
due to their small size, quiet operation, minimum structural
and maintenance costs, no need for pumps and plumbing
and no risk of leakage.
2. Modeling of the system
A schematic of the proposed system is shown in Fig. 1.
As can be seen, the TEC module is installed in the back side
of the PV cell and there is an aluminum sheet in between in
order to spread the cooling effect in the back surface of the
PV cell.
The solar radiation hits the top surface of the encapsu-
lated PV cell. A small portion of the sunlight’s energy con-
verted to electricity by PV cell and the rest of it wastes as
heat through the top and bottom surfaces of the encapsu-
lated cell. A fraction of the generated electricity by the
PV cell is then used to feed the TEC module in order to
provide the cooling effect for the PV cell. The mathematical
model of the system is explained in this section.
2.1. Thermoelectric module
A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is a semiconductor-based
electronic component that works similar to a small heat
Fig. 1. Schematic of the proposed system for the combined PV–TEC system.
pump. This device made of two dissimilar semiconductors,
p- and n-type, connected electrically in series and thermally
in parallel. By supplying a low-voltage from a DC power
source to a TEC module, heat will be transferred from
one side to the other. Consequently, one module face will
be cooled while the opposite face simultaneously is heated.
A schematic of thermoelectric cooling system is shown in
Fig. 2.
TEC modules are most commonly specified by four
main characteristics by vendors including Imax, Vmax, Qmax
and DTmax. Where DTmax is the maximum temperature dif-
ference obtainable between the hot and the cold TEC sides
at a given hot side temperature Th, Imax is the input current
that can produce the maximum DTmax across a TEC mod-
ule, Vmax is the DC voltage at the temperature difference of
DTmax at I = Imax, and Qmax is the maximum amount of
heat absorbed at the TEC cold side at I = Imax and
DTmax = 0 (Zhang, 2010).
Knowing these four values, the module parameters can
be calculated as below (Zhang, 2010):
V max
Sm ¼ ð1Þ
Ta
ðT a  DT max ÞV max
Rm ¼ ð2Þ
T a I max
Fig. 2. Schematic of thermoelectric cooling system.
 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160 155

ðT a  DT max ÞV max I max On the right hand side, the first term refers to the con-
Km ¼ ð3Þ
2T a DT max vective and conductive heat losses through the top of the
cell, the second term is the radiative loss from the top side,
From the thermal balance for a TEC module, the cool-
the third term shows the conductive heat transfer from the
ing power absorbed at the cold side can be found by Zhang
cell to the back surface of tedlar and finally the last term
(2010):
represents the portion of the sunlight which converted to
I 2 Rm electricity. Where eg is the emissivity of the PV cell, r is
Qc ¼ S m I c T c   K m DT ð4Þ
2 the Stefan–Boltzmann constant and is equal to
The rejected heat from the hot side of TEC module can 5.6703  108 (W/m2 K4) and gel is the electrical efficiency
be calculated as: of the PV cell.
UT is the conductive heat transfer coefficient from the
I 2c Rm solar cell to ambient through tedlar and it is given by:
Qh ¼ S m I c T h þ  K m DT ð5Þ
2  1
Lsi LT
where DT refers to the temperature difference between the UT ¼ þ ð11Þ
hot side and the cold side of the TEC module: K si K T

DT ¼ T h  T c ð6Þ Ut is the overall heat transfer coefficient from the solar

cell to ambient through glass cover which includes conduc-
The temperature at the junction between the backside of
tion and convection losses:
the PV cell (tedlar) and the Aluminum plate can be deter-
mined as:  1
Lg 1
Ut ¼ þ ð12Þ
T bs ¼ T c þ Qc Rjc ð7Þ K g hconv;t
The temperature at the hot side of the TEC can be found The effective temperature of the sky (Tsky) is calculated
by: from the following relation (Wong and Chow, 2001):
T h ¼ T a þ Qh Rha ð8Þ
T sky ¼ 0:0552  T a1:5 ð13Þ
The value of Rha refers to the thermal resistance of the
heat sink in the back side of the TEC module. Vividly, a An energy balance equation can be also written for the
smaller value for Rha means a better heat transfer through back surface of tedlar:
the system and a better performance for the module. U T ðT cell  T bs ÞAPV ¼ N TEC Qc þ ha ðT bs  T amb ÞðAPV  ATEC Þ
Finally, the energy conservation for the TEC module can
be written as: ð14Þ
Qh ¼ Qc þ Qte ð9Þ The first term in the right hand side refers to the
removed heat by the TEC modules and the second term
2.2. Photovoltaic panel is the transferred heat due to convection between the tedlar
and the flowing air from ambient.
The rate of solar energy available on PV cell is equal to All the energy balance equations for thermoelectric
the sum of the overall heat losses from the top surface of modules and the PV cell are solved simultaneously to
PV cell to the ambient, the overall heat transfer from the obtain the temperature at different sections (Tc, Th, Tbs,
PV cell to the back surface of tedlar and the rate of electri- T cell ) and the values of Qc and Qh.
cal energy produced (Sarhaddi et al., 2010): In next step, an electrical model is developed to calculate
the generated power by the PV cell for any solar irradiation
sg ½ac bc G þ aT ð1  bc ÞGAPV ¼ U t ðT cell  T amb ÞAPV þ eg rAPV ðT 4celland
 Tcell4
sky Þ temperature. An explicit model proposed by Sal-

þ U T ðT cell  T bs ÞAPV þ sg bc gel G:APV oux et al. (2011) is utilized in this paper as it is discussed
below.
ð10Þ
The photocurrent as a function of irradiance and tem-
It should be noted that in this model, the air flow is con- perature can be found as:
sidered as a laminar flow and for a real case design, the tilt G
angle of the solar panel has to be taken into account in I ph ¼ ½I ph;ref þ lf ðT  T ref Þ ð15Þ
Gref
order to find the collectible solar radiation on the panel.
In Eq. (10), the left side is the available solar energy on The saturation current can be written based on the
the PV cell. Where sg is the transmissivity of the glass, ac short-circuit current temperature coefficient as well as the
and aT represented the absorptivity of the solar cells and open-circuit voltage temperature coefficient:
the tedlar respectively and bc refers to the packing factor
of the solar cell. The packing factor can be defined as the I sc;ref þ lf ðT  T ref Þ
Io ¼ h i ð16Þ
fraction of absorber plate area covered by the solar cells. exp
qðV oc;ref þlV ðTT ref ÞÞ
1
nN s k B T
156 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160
where n is the diode quality coefficient and can be deter-
mined as:
qðV m;ref  V oc;ref Þ 1
n¼ I m;ref
N s k B T ref lnð1  I sc;ref Þ
Therefore, the voltage and current at the maximum
power point and the corresponding power can be found
as follow:
 
nN s k B T nN s k B T I sc
V mpp ¼ ln ð18Þ
q qI o V oc
 
nN s k B T I sc
I mpp ¼ I ph þ I o  ð19Þ
q V oc
P mpp ¼ I mpp V mpp
where the open circuit voltage can be given as below:
 
nN s k B T I sc
V oc ¼ ln 1 þ ð21Þ
q Io
3. Optimization scheme
Genetic algorithm (GA) is a stochastic numerical search
method, inspired by evolutionary processes, which was first
proposed by Holland (1975). A comprehensive discussion
about GA is given in Holland (1975) and Goldberg (2000).
In GA terminology, a solution vector x e X is called an
individual or a chromosome. GA operates with a collection
of chromosomes called population. Chromosomes are
made of discrete units called genes. Each gene controls
one or more features of the chromosome (Konak et al.,
2006).
The initial population is usually randomly generated
and the evolution happens in generations. the fitness of
individuals in the population is evaluated In each genera-
tion based on the considered fitness function (objective
function), and the most fitted individuals (parents) are
selected. The higher fitness of an individual, leads to higher
possibility of being selected as parent for the reproduction
and forming a new population. In the next step, crossover,
two chromosomes (parents), combine together and form
new chromosomes, called offspring. Since individuals with
higher fitness have more chance for being selected and pro-
duce offspring, the new population, generated after cross-
over, posses more qualified genes and consequently
higher fitness (Najafi et al., 2011). Therefore, using cross-
over operator iteratively leads to convergence to a general
good solution. The mutation operator, which is generally
applied in the genes level, causes random changes in char-
acteristics of chromosomes. Since the mutation rate is small
and depends on length of the chromosome, the new chro-
mosome produced by mutation will not be much different
from the earlier one. Hence, crossover leads the population
to converge by making the chromosomes in the population
alike. Mutation adds genetic diversity into the population
and assists the search to escape from local optima (Konak
ð17Þ
ð20Þ
Fig. 3. GA optimization flowchart.
et al., 2006). The algorithm converges usually when a
desired fitness level has been achieved for the population.
A set of functions are coded in MATLAB in order to
perform the GA optimization procedure. The flowchart
given in Fig. 3 shows how the GA works and converges
to the optimal result. In this work, the objective function
is defined as the power saving due to temperature reduction
in the PV cell minus the utilized power by the TEC module.
The optimization variable (the chromosome) is the electri-
cal current which feeds the TEC module. The value of the
optimization parameter is iteratively changed through GA
operators (crossover and mutation) and the corresponding
objective function is evaluated for each generation until the
satisfactory fitness level has been reached for the popula-
tion. Therefore, for a fixed considered ambient temperature
and solar radiation, the GA finds the optimal value of Ic
which yields the highest output power. The probability of
crossover is set as 0.9 and the probability of mutation is
considered 0.05 while the population size is set to be 20.
4. Results and discussions
The characteristics of the considered PV cell are given in
Table 1. To illustrate the effect of the cell temperature on
power generated by the PV cell, Fig. 4 shows the variation
of PV output power versus cell temperature under different
Table 1
PV cell characteristics.
Short circuit current, Isc (A) 4.35
Open circuit voltage, Voc (V) 0.602
Maximum power current, Vmp (V) 0.479
Maximum power voltage, Imp (A) 4.03
Short circuit current temperature coef. (A/K) 0.00372
Open circuit current voltage coef. (V/K) 0.002986
NOCT, (°C) 45
Dimension, (mm) 103  103  0.5
Efficiency, gel (%) 13
 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160 157

Fig. 4. Effect of cell temperature on generated power at different solar radiation levels.

specified solar radiation levels. It can be seen that for a
fixed solar radiation, higher cell temperature leads to less
output power. At 3200 W/m2, the generated power for a
cell temperature of 298 K is about 80% more than the gen-
erated power by the PV cell when the cell temperature is
360 K. This can clearly shows the importance of using an
appropriate cooling system, specially at higher solar radia-
tion levels which occurs in CPV systems.
Fig. 5 shows the variation of temperatures through the
system, under a specific level of solar radiation versus the
supplied electrical current. For this simulation the charac-
teristics given in Table 2 are considered for the TEC mod-
ule. It should be noted that the Z value (figure of merit) of
the considered module is 0.0022 1/K (@ 300 K) which is a
typical value for TEC modules. This value is calculated by
using following equation (Zhang, 2010):
S 2m
Z¼ ð22Þ
Rm K m
The values of Sm, Rm and Km can be calculated by using
Eqs. (1)–(3). These values depend on the TEC module spec-
ifications as well as the ambient temperature. Therefore,
for a constant ambient temperature the Z value is consid-
ered constant.

Fig. 5. Temperature variation within the combined PV–TEC system by changing the supplied electrical current.
158 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160
Table 2
TEC module characteristics (Marlow DT 12-401).
Parameter Value
Imax 3.7 A
Vmax 14.7 V
Qmax 36 W
DTmax 66
Z 0.0022
Dimensions 34  30  3.4 mm
As can be expected, increasing Ic results in more cooling
effect which decreases the cold side temperature of the TEC
module and subsequently cell temperature and tedlar back-
side temperature. At the same time, the temperature at the
hot side of the TEC module increases. Obviously, increas-
ing the value of Ic means supplying more power into the
TEC module. The utilized power by the TEC module can
be given by following equation:
P TEC ¼ S m I c ðT h  T c Þ þ I 2c Rc
Fig. 6 demonstrated the consumed power by the TEC
for different values of Ic. For a specific set of conditions,
it is possible to calculate the optimal value for electrical
current which should be supplied to the TEC module in
order to obtain the minimum junction temperature and
consequently minimum cell temperature. This approach is
usually utilized for designing and optimization of refriger-
ators which work by TEC modules when maximizing the
cooling effect is the main priority in the problem. However,
this is not a feasible approach for PV–TEC systems since
the required power to run the TEC at the optimal perfor-
mance, is excessively more than the generated power by
the PV cells. To demonstrate this, a simulation is carried
out in order to find the optimal required current for TEC
modules and the results are given in Table 3. Therefore,
it can be seen that although the TEC modules are capable
Fig. 6. Power used by TEC module for different electrical current.
of provide a significant amount of cooling for PV cells, they
use a high amount of power which is more than the maxi-
mum generated power by the PV cell.
Two approaches are proposed and investigated to use
the considered PV–TEC system. In the first approach, a
threshold is considered for the TEC module to start work-
ing. In other words, when the cell temperature exceed a
specific limit the TEC module starts working and does
not allow the cell temperature to increase anymore. Intui-
tively, a controller will be needed to adjust the required
supplied power to the TEC in each condition (solar radia-
tion, ambient temperature and wind speed). In this
approach, the TEC operation acts as a shield for the solar
cell which keeps it from degradation due to high cell tem-
perature. Considering solar radiation of 2000 W/m2, the
required electrical power for the TEC module to keep the
PV cell temperature lower than 340 K for different ambient
temperatures is presented in Table 4. As can be seen, for
higher ambient temperature more power will be needed
ð23Þ to provide cooling for the PV cells. It should be noted that
PNet refers to the generated power by the PV cell minus the
utilized power by the TEC module. Also for a constant
ambient temperature of 300 K, the required power to keep
the PV cell temperature under 340 K for different solar
radiation levels is presented in Table 5. It is obvious that
for higher solar radiations more power is required to keep
the cell at the desired temperature. The results show that
the PV–TEC system is capable of keeping the cell temper-
ature under a specified limit for different conditions by
using the generated power via PV cells. PV cells usually uti-
lized along with a battery to save the generated energy
when it is more than required. This energy could also be
utilized to keep the cell cool and avoid any potential dam-
ages. Intuitively, considering the meteorological conditions
in a specific area during the year, the PV cell itself and the
required power, an appropriate TEC module needs to be
selected with a controller for adjusting the supplied power.
 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160 159

Table 3
Optimal values of Ic which yields minimum Tcell.
G (W/m2) Tcell, non-cooled (K) Tcell, cooled (K) Ic,opt (A) PTEC (W) PPV, cooled (W)
1000 329.6 313.5 2.33 23.25 1.72
2000 350.5 333.6 2.4 23.3 3.0896
2500 360.5 343.3 2.46 23.83 3.59
3000 369.6 352.9 2.55 25.39 3.98

Table 4 on the other hand, more electrical current means more

Required power to keep PV module temperature under 340 K in different power consumption by the TEC module. There is a
ambient temperature for solar radiation of 2000 W/m2.
trade-off between the extra generated power due to cell
Tamb (K) Ic (A) PTEC (W) PNet (W) temperature reduction and TEC power consumption.
300 0 0 2.9 Therefore, the objective function is defined as the power
301 0.24 0.0451 2.8838 saving due to temperature reduction in the PV cell minus
302 0.25 0.046 2.8515
303 0.3 0.1229 2.7655
the utilized power by the TEC module. The optimization
304 0.39 0.3422 2.5577 variable is the electrical current which feeds the TEC mod-
305 0.45 0.4853 2.4033 ule. Therefore, for a fixed considered ambient temperature
306 0.54 0.8357 2.0605 and solar radiation, the GA finds the optimal value of Ic
307 0.6 1.0439 1.8389 which yields the highest output power.
308 0.69 1.5234 1.363
309 0.8 2.0881 0.7995
The considered objective function is defined as below:
310 0.88 2.7372 0.1492
Power Gain ¼ ðP PV ;with TEC cooling  P PV ;without cooling Þ  P TEC
ð24Þ
Table 5
Required power to keep PV module temperature under 340 K under Where the first term in equation above is the extra gener-
different solar radiation for ambient temperature of 300 K. ated power due to temperature reduction and the second
G (W/m2) Ic (A) PTEC (W) PNet (W) term refers to the consumed power by the TEC module.
2000 0 0 2.97 The results from optimization of the system are given in
2100 0.25 0.0324 3.0287 Table 6. It should be noted that the performance of the sys-
2200 0.45 0.4372 2.8155 tem is strongly depends on the Z value (figure of merit) of
2300 0.55 0.7516 2.64 the thermoelectric module which is considered to be
2400 0.75 1.64 1.93
2500 0.95 2.86 0.8775
0.007 1/K (@ Ta = 300 K) for this simulation which is
higher than typical available TEC modules available in
market. It is shown that the optimal value for the electrical
Another approach can be defined to use PV–TEC sys- current has a small magnitude. It can be seen that for this
tem when the goal is enhancing the net output power from case, it is possible to generate extra power due to the cool-
the combined PV–TEC system by adjusting the supplied ing effect of the TEC module via the PV cell. This extra
current to the TEC module. Increasing the electrical cur- power is more than the utilized power by the TEC module
rent would increase the cooling effect which in turn leads for the optimal value of the Ic. However, for the optimal Ic
to less cell temperature and higher output power. However, the cooling effect is not very significant and the temperature

Table 6
Optimal values of Ic for maximizing net output power.
G (W/m2) Tcell (K) without cooling Tcell (K) with cooling Iopt (A) Extra power (W) Net output power (W)
1500 340.15 335.8 0.4 0.0062 2.0643
2000 350.45 344.71 0.5 0.055 2.6
2500 360.49 353.41 0.61 0.116 3.029
3000 370.29 361.9 0.7 0.1866 3.35

Table 7
The magnitude of extra generated power for different values of Z.
Z (1/K) Tcell (K) without cooling Tcell (K) with cooling Iopt (A) Extra power (W) Net output power (W)
0.005 350.45 345.32 0.46 0.004 2.55
0.006 350.45 345.01 0.48 0.036 2.58
0.007 350.45 344.71 0.5 0.055 2.6
0.008 350.45 344.41 0.52 0.0704 2.62
160 H. Najafi, K.A. Woodbury / Solar Energy 91 (2013) 152–160
reduction did not exceed 8 K. Obviously, for a TEC mod-
ule with a small Z value, and a PV cell with a lower power
temperature coefficient, there might be no optimal point. In
other words, if the generated power by the PV would be
less affected by the cell temperature increment, few degrees
reduction in cell temperature cannot generate more power
than the utilized power for the TEC module. This is shown
in Table 7 where the ambient temperature is set at 311 K
and the solar radiation is considered to be 2000 W/m2,
the extra generated power due to temperature reduction
for TEC modules with different values of Z is presented.
It can be seen that for Z value less than 0.005 1/K (@
Ta = 300 K) there will be no extra generated power by
using PV–TEC system which is the scenario for all of the
current available modules in market.
An important factor which has to be taken into account
for a real case design is the cost of the system. The price of
a typical TEC module is varying depending on the effi-
ciency of the module, but it could be as cheap as $5–10
apiece. The cost of a single PV cell can varies depending
on type of the cell and efficiency of the cell but a ball park
price can be about $15. However, for a larger scale such as
a PV panel including several PV cells, the total cost will be
cheaper (it is about $5/W). Several factors has to be taken
into account before estimating the cost of the system,
including the concentration level, ambient conditions, the
available heat on the solar panel, the desired approach to
use the combined system and the corresponding required
number of TEC modules. It should be noted that, although
TEC modules usually has a rather long lifetime, cares has
to be taken regarding the allowable temperatures at the
hot and cold sides of the TEC module in order to avoid
degradation of the module during operation.
5. Conclusions
In the present work, the possibility of using TEC mod-
ules to provide a cooling effect for a PV cell is investigated.
A detailed model is developed and coded in MATLAB in
order to determine temperatures and heat fluxes through
the PV–TEC system at each given ambient temperature
and solar radiation level. Two approaches are defined
and investigated in order to use the proposed system. In
the first approach, the goal is controlling the cell tempera-
ture at the desired range. The required power which needs
to be supplied for the TEC module in order to provide
enough cooling in each solar radiation level and ambient
temperature is calculated for different cases and showed
that the TEC module can be used for temperature control
of PV cells. In the second approach, an optimization via
genetic algorithm is carried out in MATLAB in order to
find the optimal value of the required electrical current sup-
plying to the TEC module which can lead to the highest net
output power. It is concluded that this approach will be
promising when the TEC module has a high Z value and
will be more effective for higher solar radiation levels.
Although in this work the practical implementation issues
and economical consideration have not discussed, the
results shows the possibility of using PV–TEC systems.
The development in thermoelectric materials can lead to
more promising use of the proposed methods.
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