High-efficiency bio-inspired hybrid multi-generation photovoltaic leaf.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37291103.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38984-7 and PMC identifier 10250451.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Most solar energy incident (>70%) upon commercial photovoltaic panels is dissipated as heat, increasing their operating temperature, and leading to significant deterioration in electrical performance. The solar utilisation efficiency of commercial photovoltaic panels is typically below 25%. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid multi-generation photovoltaic leaf concept that employs a biomimetic transpiration structure made of eco-friendly, low-cost and widely-available materials for effective passive thermal management and multi-generation. We demonstrate experimentally that bio-inspired transpiration can remove ~590 W/m<sup>2</sup> of heat from a photovoltaic cell, reducing the cell temperature by ~26 °C under an irradiance of 1000 W/m<sup>2</sup>, and resulting in a relatively 13.6% increase in electrical efficiency. Furthermore, the photovoltaic leaf is capable of synergistically utilising the recovered heat to co-generate additional thermal energy and freshwater simultaneously within the same component, significantly elevating the overall solar utilisation efficiency from 13.2% to over 74.5%, along with over 1.1 L/h/m<sup>2</sup> of clean water.