Patent ID: 8420926

Claim:
A hybrid solar electric device consisting essentially of: a photovoltaic cell; a thermoelectric cell in direct physical and thermal contact to a substrate of the photovoltaic cell and integrally coupled with the photovoltaic cell to primarily cool and heat the photovoltaic cell; an electrical connection within the hybrid solar electric device between the photovoltaic cell and the thermoelectric cell for the thermoelectric cell to controllably receive electric energy from the photovoltaic cell to produce a reverse temperature gradient for cooling or a forward temperature gradient for heating; a sensing device to monitor an external environmental condition in which the hybrid solar device is operating; and a controller programmed to control at least three modes of operation of the photovoltaic cell and thermoelectric cell according to the output from the sensing device to efficiently increase the net electric output from the photovoltaic cell and increase the longevity of the hybrid solar electric device, one of the at least three modes of operation consisting of a first mode of operation with the thermoelectric cell elements configured as a Peltier Effect cooler driven by the DC output of the photovoltaic cell to primarily cool the photovoltaic cell elements to increase the net output power of the photovoltaic cell under sensed hot conditions and a second mode of operation wherein the thermoelectric cell elements are configured as a Peltier Effect cooler driven in reverse by one of the DC output of the photovoltaic cell and an external grid-sourced DC supply to heat the photovoltaic cell elements to protect from thermal stress of the hybrid solar electric device under sensed cold and wet environmental conditions; and a third mode of operation which alternates between the first and second modes of operation based on the external environmental condition for the purpose of increasing the output power of the hybrid solar electric device.