Radiative cooling in spectrally and thermally managed power systems

As an emerging strategy for thermal management in solar energy conversion, passive radiative cooling (PRC) has progressed rapidly from isolated material demonstrations to increasingly integrated power generation systems. By exploiting the atmospheric transparency window, PRC can mitigate temperature induced losses in photovoltaic (PV) modules and provide a cold reservoir for thermoelectric power generation. Despite advances at the material and device levels, a systematic review that links PRC material and structural design to the spectral and energy flow requirements of PV, solar thermal, and thermoelectric systems are still lacking. This review provides a comprehensive overview of PRC enabled power systems from a combined spectral and energy flow perspective. First, the fundamental principles of PRC and the spectral selectivity of PV devices are summarized, with an emphasis on how useful and parasitic spectral bands are defined in typical solar converters. Then, recent progress is systematically reviewed along four archetypal routes: transparent PRC layers on the illuminated side of PV modules, opaque PRC surfaces on PV backsides and surrounding structures, hybrid PV thermal PRC architectures, and PRC driven thermoelectric systems. On this basis, design strategies and research priorities are proposed to promote the development and future deployment of PRC assisted next generation power systems.