Solar-driven photovoltaic-steam-thermoelectric-steam cogeneration system by the interfacial cooling design

The future development of hybrid systems using renewable energy to realize the cogeneration of freshwater and electricity has become an urgent challenge to meet the sustainable development of human life with a minimal carbon footprint. In this work, a solar-electricity-water integrated system was fabricated by integrating photovoltaic, interfacial solar steam generator, and a thermoelectric device. Taking advantages of the heat management provided by evaporative cooling and reuse of recycling steam enthalpy, the integration of efficient photovoltaic power generation, seawater desalination, and power generation of thermoelectric devices has been realized. A solar-electrical-thermal multi-physical field coupling model was established, the energy transmission mechanism was clarified, and the structural parameters were optimized to achieve the full use of energy. This system was experimentally demonstrated to cool down the photovoltaic by over 14℃ and produce a stable electricity generation efficiency of 19.4 % while collecting freshwater of 1.0 kg·m⁻²·h⁻¹ from seawater in one sun. Concurrently, an increase in power generation is realized by the synergistic effect of evaporation enthalpy dissipation and the interfacial cooling design. Under a natural environment of 0.8 sun in average, the system revealed more stable temperature control and better water-electricity cogeneration performance than that of the single photovoltaic module. As a result, this work aims to develop a promising pathway to respond to the water-energy nexus through the interfacial cooling design.