Experimental investigation of a PV/T system containing a TEG section between water-based heat exchanger and air-based heat sink

•The TEGs are used between the air heat sink and the water heat exchanger of the PV/T.•The system performance under four different climates was investigated experimentally.•The total electrical and thermal efficiency of hybrid PV/T-TEG reached more than 55%.•A uniform 23% decrease in PV temperature and a 15% improvement in power was observed.•In warm climates, direct PV heat disposal is more beneficial than improving ΔT of TEGs. The negative impact of temperature on PV power generation has led to the implementation of new cooling techniques globally to enhance the annual performance of PV systems. This study proposes a novel arrangement of Photovoltaic/Thermal-Thermoelectric generator PV/T-TEG integrated system that uses water and air cooling to enhance the performance of PV modules in warm regions. The system applies TEGs between the water heat exchanger and the air heatsink, instead of between the PV module and the cooling fluid. This avoids the non-uniform cooling associated with direct TEG connection to the PV backside. The proposed system was tested in four different climates in Iran and compared with PV-TEG and alone-PV systems. The results showed that the proposed system reduced the PV surface temperature by 23%, increased the electrical output power by more than 15%, and improved the PV electrical efficiency by about 3%. The average total energy efficiency was 55.6% and the maximum thermal efficiency was about 20%. These values were satisfactory for the non-concentrated TEG-based PV/T system in all analyzed climates.