A novel high-performance photovoltaic–thermoelectric hybrid device

Abstract

A novel photovoltaic–thermoelectric (PV–TE) hybrid device composed of a series-connected dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), a solar selective absorber (SSA) and a TE generator is created. The conversion efficiency of the DSSC was enhanced significantly by using the SSA and TE generator to utilize residual sunlight transmitted through the DSSC. The hybrid device comprising a DSSC as a “top cell” for high-energy photons and an SSA coated TE generator as a “bottom cell” for low-energy photons gave rise to an overall conversion efficiency larger than 13%. Although our hybrid device was not yet optimized but served as proof-of-principle for harvesting electricity from solar light and heat simultaneously with high conversion efficiency by a single device, this study would give some enlightenment for the development of high-performance PV–TE hybrid devices.