State-of-the-art in thin-film PV/T and PV/TEG panel design and thermal integration

Thin-film photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) and photovoltaic/thermoelectric generator (PV/TEG) hybrid systems offer a promising pathway for simultaneously recovering photovoltaic thermal losses as useful energy and improving overall solar conversion efficiency. Despite growing interest, existing reviews typically address PV/T or PV/TEG architectures in isolation, focus predominantly on crystalline silicon rather than thin-film materials, and rarely integrate thermal, environmental, and techno-economic perspectives within a single framework. This review fills that gap by providing a unified critical assessment that systematically compares thin-film photovoltaic materials – including amorphous silicon, CdTe, CIGS, perovskites, organic photovoltaics, and dye-sensitized solar cells – across both PV/T and PV/TEG hybrid configurations. Simultaneously, it evaluates their thermal integration strategies, environmental impacts, and economic viability. Based on a structured literature search of approximately 130 primary sources published between 2015 and 2025, the analysis yields four key findings: (i) nanofluid-cooled microchannel PV/TEG systems achieve up to 49.2% improvement in PV electrical output, though this gain is contingent upon minimizing interfacial thermal resistance and parasitic pumping losses; (ii) PCM-assisted configurations reduce PV operating temperatures by approximately 24 °C and reach overall efficiencies of up to 14.2%, making them particularly suitable for CdTe and CIGS substrates where thermal stability is critical; (iii) heat-pipe-assisted designs improve PV output by approximately 4% under elevated ambient conditions while maintaining system simplicity; and (iv) favorable deployment scenarios project LCOE values of 4–6 ct/kWh with energy payback times of 0.5–3 years. The review further identifies that performance claims in the literature are frequently obscured by methodological inconsistencies – such as the lack of standardized testing baselines, the omission of parasitic pumping losses, and the neglect of thermal contact resistances – leading to systemic overestimations of real-world viability. By integrating material selection, thermal design, and techno-economic interpretation, this review provides actionable guidance for designing high-efficiency, scalable thin-film hybrid systems and defines critical directions for future experimental validation.