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The purpose of this paper is to report the system solution expressed in the form of a block diagram. In this paper, a multi-functional demonstrator of the interactive system designed to modelling, monitoring and validation of hybrid photovoltaic (PV) systems assisted by fuel cells and thermoelectric generators is presented. Technical parameters of demonstrator components such as: silicon PV modules, fuel cells, thermoelectric generators, gel batteries, control and monitoring systems are described.

The design shows the implementation of PV system modelling by four universal PV module simulators supported by two 65 W fuel cell and 12 modules, 6 W thermoelectric generators battery.

The paper provides practical proof that the combination of PV technology with both thermoelecric generators and fuel cells technologies shows promising results for the development of hybrid PV systems with increased effectiveness and efficiency.

The design idea can be developed for many applications gaining electricity from many distributed sources of wasted energy.

In practice, hybrid systems can be used to support the operation of classic PV systems, for example, working in various climatic conditions.

The proposed model demonstrates new technical solution leading to the enlargement of the PV systems application.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) which present promising low-cost alternative to the conventional silicon solar cells mainly due to comparatively low manufacturing cost, ease of fabrication and relatively good efficiency. One of the undesirable factor in DSSCs is the electron recombination process that takes place at the transparent conductive oxide/electrolyte interface, on the side of photoelectrode. To reduce this effect in the structure of the solar cell, a TiO₂ blocking layer (BL) by atomic layer deposition (ALD) was deposited.

Scanning electron microscope, Raman and UV-Vis spectroscopy were used to evaluate the influence of BL on the photovoltaic properties. Electrical parameters of manufactured DSSCs with and without BL were characterized by measurements of current-voltage characteristics under standard AM 1.5 radiation.

The TiO₂ BL prevents the physical contact of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) and the electrolyte and leads to increase in the cell’s overall efficiency, from 5.15 to 6.18%. Higher density of the BL, together with larger contact area and improved adherence between the TiO₂ layer and FTO surface provide more electron pathways from TiO₂ to FTO which facilitates electron transfer.

This paper demonstrates that the introduction of a BL into the photovoltaic device structure is an important step in technology of DSSCs to improve its efficiency. Moreover, the ALD is a powerful technique which allows for the highly reproducible growth of pinhole-free thin films with excellent thickness accuracy and conformality at low temperature.