Building integrated photovoltaic thermal/thermoelectric (PVT/TEC) air system: modelling and simulation

This paper presents a novel building-integrated solar system with integrated thermoelectric cooler; the proposed concept consists of Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) panels and Peltier thermoelectric cooler (TEC). By exploiting the cooling of PV cells – necessary for increasing their electricity efficiency – PV/T devices simultaneously generate electricity and thermal energy. TEC devices allow achieving space cooling or heating, by exploiting heat transfer through TEC plates according to the direction of the electrical current. By suitably coupling PV/T panels to Peltier devices different building integrated PVT-TEC system layouts can be obtained. By such systems, a share of building electricity, heating and cooling demands can be balanced by also increasing the self-consuming rate of the PV production. To assess the energy performance of PVT-TEC systems, a novel 2D dynamic simulation model based on a resistive-capacitance thermal network is purposely developed. In addition, to conduct building energy performance analyses, the model is implemented in a suitable computer tool written in MatLab. By such a tool different PVT-TEC configuration can be compared from energy and economic points of view.