Experimental study of a thermoelectric solar collector integrated with a water lens

Abstract

In this paper the results of the influence of a water lens concentrator on the performance of a thermoelectric (TE) solar collector are presented. The proposed TE solar collector with water lens concentrator was composed of an absorber plate, TE modules, a rectangular fin heat sink and a water lens. The water lens concentrator was placed above the TE solar collector. The water lens concentrator was installed on a one-axis sun-tracking system to obtain high solar radiation. Concentrated solar radiation from the water lens heats up the absorber plate so that a temperature difference is created across the TE modules to generate a direct current. Only a small part of the absorber solar radiation is converted to electricity, while the rest increases the temperature of the absorber plate. Improvement to electrical power output of the system can be achieved by the use of the water lens concentrator and TE technology. It was found that the optimum position of the focus length is 12 cm, which gives significantly higher electrical power output compared with the TE solar collector without the water lens concentrator.

Keywords: Thermoelectric, Electrical power, Water lens