Design and implementation of a thermoelectric-photovoltaic hybrid energy source for hybrid electric vehicles

With ever-increasing demand on energy conservation, there is fast growing interest in the technologies to improve the fuel economy for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), especially the exhaust gas waste heat energy recovery. Meanwhile, the use of solar energy in HEVs is also proposed to promote on-board renewable energy and hence improve their fuel economy. In this paper, an overview of on-board renewable energy sources is first presented. Then, a new thermoelectric-photovoltaic hybrid energy source is designed and implemented for HEVs. Finally, experimental results are given to verify the validity of the proposed system.