Energy and exergy performance evaluation of a novel photovoltaic-thermoelectric system combined with tube and sheet serpentine water collector

In this paper, a photovoltaic-thermoelectric with serpentine water collector (PV-TE-SWC) is proposed where a serpentine tube and sheet water collector is placed at the rear surface of the combined photovoltaic-thermoelectric system to improve the electrical, thermal, and exergy performance of the hybrid system. The performance of the proposed PV-TE-SW collector is analyzed and compared with the results of a recent state-of-art study on photovoltaic-thermoelectric (PV-TE) air collector. The overall electrical gain and electrical efficiency of the proposed collector are observed 5.2% and 6.2%-7.05% higher than the state-of-art PV-TE air collector. The exergy of thermal energy for the proposed collector is 75.6% higher than the PV-TE air collector due to the serpentine water collector, which is capable to absorb more heat and shows better thermal performance compared to the air channel. Hence, the overall exergy gain of the PV-TE-SW collector is 32.2% higher than that of the PV-TE air collector. The impact of different design parameters over exergy gain has also been examined. The performance of the PV-TE-SW collector is influenced to a great extent by the collector dimensions, mass flow rate, and inlet temperature of the fluid.