LAUSR

Abstract The achievement of temperature and heat management by combining the photovoltaic (PV) power generation and semiconductor thermoelectric refrigerators (TERs) is significant for developing high performance and durable energy conversion systems. In this work, a new energy system combining PV with TERs is proposed and theoretically evaluated. At a given solar irradiance of 200 W m−2, the electrical matching properties between two subsystems are studied and the TERs’ operating regions are provided. The optimal efficiency of 13.9% is obtained by reasonably selecting the TERs’ number and the structure parameters. Further, the effects of the solar irradiance on the optimal efficiency and the operating conditions are analyzed. The parametric optimal regions are identified to achieve a trade-off between the efficiency and the cooling heat flow rate. The impacts of the diode’s ideal factor, the TERs’ temperature span, and the PV panel’s series internal resistance and shunt resistance on the system are revealed. The proposed model and the analysis may provide valuable strategies for designing PV-driven TERs.