Feasibility Study of Using Thermoelectric Cooling Modules for Active Cooling of Photovoltaic Panels

Temperature increment is one of the main challenges for solar concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems which cause cell degradation and significant efficiency loss. To overcome this issue, a novel cooling method by using Peltier effect is proposed and investigated. In this approach, thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules are considered to be installed on the back side of the photovoltaic (PV) module. The required power to run the TEC module is provided by the PV panel itself. A comprehensive model is developed and simulated via MATLAB in order to determine the values of temperatures in different sections of the system and calculate the required power to run the TEC module and the extra generated power by PV panels due to the cooling effect. The result shows that using TEC modules can successfully keep the PV cell temperature within the desired temperature range during a hot day when limited temperature reduction is needed.