A Comparative case study of remote area power supply systems using photovoltaic-battery vs thermoelectric-battery configuration

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative study of two types of remote area power supply (RAPS) systems, which are the existing photovoltaic-based (PV) configuration and the proposed thermoelectric-based (TE) configuration. Both RAPS systems are solar-based power generators and sized according to Melbourne weather conditions (latitude 37.5o S). In this study, the RAPS system designs for both PV and TE have no backup generator and the batteries are the only device for electrical energy storage. Battery storage is used for storing solar energy during the available days for meeting the energy demand as required. The presented RAPS systems for this comparative study are PV/Battery and TE/Battery configurations. Generally, both PV and TE cells are solar-based power generating cells but they have different pre-conversion inputs. For electrical power generation, PV uses sunlight as input energy while the TE uses concentrated solar heat. The results show that the total setup cost for TE/Battery system is 66% higher than PV/Battery system under similar design requirements. Despite having higher setup cost, the TE/Battery system has the potential to harness both electrical and thermal energy for domestic purposes