Numerical analysis of solar ventilated facade integrated thermoelectric energy harvesting panel for simultaneous building thermal insulation and power generation

Although coupled thermal and power analysis has been conducted on many existing solar ventilated facade system, there is still a challenge and considerable problem on the synergistic enhancement of power generation and thermal insulation using solar energy. Motivated by this, this study proposed a novel solar ventilated facade integrated thermoelectric energy harvesting panel (SVF-TEHP) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to produce renewable electricity and augment thermal resistance by implementing solar active thermoelectric power generation and passive ventilation strategies. Firstly, a coupled simulation model jointly with heat transfer process, energy and exergy analysis were presented to explore the effect of key parameters on thermal insulation performance and electrical performance of the SVF-TEHP, such as solar intensity, channel height, channel width and length of thermoelectric arm. Furthermore, a comparison of the system performance of SVF-TEHP, solar ventilated facade (SVF) wall and conventional wall (CW) was made from the viewpoint of building cooling and solar thermoelectric generation. Finally, the economic payback period, carbon emissions and solar utilization limit were addressed to predict the application potential and challenge of the SVF-TEHP as functional enclosure structure for building energy saving. The comparisons of SVF-TEHP, SVF and CW show that interior wall temperature can be decreased by 8.5 K and 16.5 K for solar intensity of 900 W/m2, and the output power of SVF-TEHP can reach 0.37 mW. Alternatively, the detailed analysis performed that there is a positive correlation between power generation and thermal insulation performance and the shortest payback period of this system can reaches less than 1 year. This paper will provide a lot of useful information for understanding thermal insulation and energy conversion of solar buildings.