  The performance of a combined solar photovoltaic (PV) and thermoelectric
generator (TEG) system is examined using an analytical model for four different
types of commercial PVs and a commercial bismuth telluride TEG. The TEG is
applied directly on the back of the PV, so that the two devices have the same
temperature. The PVs considered are crystalline Si (c-Si), amorphous Si (a-Si),
copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells.
The degradation of PV performance with temperature is shown to dominate the
increase in power produced by the TEG, due to the low efficiency of the TEG.
For c-Si, CIGS and CdTe PV cells the combined system produces a lower power and
has a lower efficiency than the PV alone, whereas for an a-Si cell the total
system performance may be slightly increased by the TEG.
