A novel strategy of enhancing sky radiative cooling by solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooler

Abstract According to the characteristics of photovoltaic power generation and radiative cooling, a novel strategy of PVRC-TE (incorporation of radiative cooling with solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooler) system that enhancing sky radiative cooling by solar photovoltaic-thermoelectric cooler was proposed. Photovoltaic cells convert part of the sun's radiation into electricity, reducing the solar incidence and heat absorption, and enhancing diurnal radiant cooling. At the same time, PV cells drive TEC module to generate cooling energy. The system makes full use of the characteristics of PV cells and radiative cooling, promotes each other, and realize 24-hour all day operation. A mathematical model is established, and its performance is analyzed and parameterized by the validated model. The influences of design parameters and the common environmental effects on the performance of system, such as ambient temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and sunshine hours are included in the study. Taking Hefei city as an example, the influence of different meteorological parameters on the system performance is discussed. The simulation results show that the area with drought and long sunshine time in middle latitude is more suitable for high performance system. In PVRC-TE system, the area of photovoltaic and radiant cooling has the best geometric ratio. When the ratio of photovoltaic and radiation cooling area is 1, the maximum cooling energy gain in a day of the system is 285.57 MJ/m2.