Design and Modeling for the Performance Enhancement of Solar Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) Collectors

Abstract

In this paper, a simulation of a photovoltaic–thermal (PV/T) hybrid solar system with longitudinal fins absorbers was developed to determine optimal geometry parameters for conventional design of this system. In this case, we used a dynamic model based on the principle of the airflow rate to determine the optimum design of the PV/T system for each airflow velocity. In this regard, the influences of the geometric parameters (number, height) on the collector performance of each model with different flow velocities were investigated. The mathematical model is developed using the energy balance equations of the PV/T air collector. A good agreement is obtained between the simulation results and the reference data from the literature after the system PV/T air collector is evaluated by calculating the root mean square error. The studied cases indicate that for the four simulated models, the best highest performance rate is providing with the first model at 2[Formula: see text]m/s airflow velocity. The thermal and electric efficiencies were reached 83% and 12.85%, respectively, with the maximum temperature value on the photovoltaic cell as [Formula: see text]C. However, a combined efficiency for the hybrid PV/T solar collector, which is the sum of the electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency, is equal to 95.98%.

Analysis of an uncovered photovoltaic/thermal solar system powering a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant

“…In fact, the water flow rate is inversely proportional to the temperature of the PV cell because the feed temperature is directly responsible of cooling the PV/T cells. These results agree well with those published by Sahlaoui et al 6 Figure 4 also represents the variation of instantaneous electrical efficiency as function of the cooling flow rate. The figure shows that, for a flow rate equal to 0.05 kg/s, the electrical efficiency decreases from the nominal efficiency 14.17% throughout the day until reaching 12.62% at 15 h. By increasing the water flow rate, the efficiency increases.…”

“…The thermal collector and the PV efficiencies are 52% and 13%, respectively. In fact each of water, 3 nanofluid, 4 or air 5,6 can be as coolant in PV/T collectors. Ma 7 evaluated the performances of glazed and unglazed PV/T systems at the same operating conditions: solar radiation G = 1000 W/m 2 , ambient temperature T a = 25°C, the collector input temperature T in = 25°C, a wind velocity V = 2 m/s, and a mass flow rate of m = 0.04 kg/s.…”

Benchmarking and economic analysis of the impact of geometric structural design on the thermoelectric performance of air‐cooled photovoltaic thermal systems

“…The price of electricity and natural gas fluctuates from UDS$0.078/kWh to UDS$0.112/kWh, while the price of gas varies from UDS$0.089/kWh to UDS$0.120/kWh (STEG: Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas, 2020). $$$$\begin{equation}R\ = \mathop \sum \limits_{i = 1}^n {R}_y\ \frac{{({{\left( {1 + r} \right)}}^n - 1)}}{{r{{\left( {1 + r} \right)}}^n}}\end{equation}$$$$ $$$$\begin{equation}{R}_y = {E}_{el}\ .Pric{e}_{el} + \frac{{{E}_{th}}}{{{\eta }_{th,b}}}Pric{e}_{fuel}\end{equation}$$$$where r is the financing rate, which is set at 3% and n is the life cycle, which is assumed to be 20 years as defined by [34, 35].…”

“…In fact, thermodynamically, kWh of electricity cannot be directly compared to kWh of heat because their values are not the same [33]. As a result, they believe it is more accurate to compare the two quantities in terms of initial energy by introducing a new efficiency parameter known as initial energy saving efficiency $${C}_{pv}$$ [33, 35].…”

“…The thermal performance of PV/T hybrid air collectors is an assessment parameter of many PV/T systems, hence dynamic models based on the airflow principle have been employed to establish the ideal PV/T system designs. As a result, several studies [34][35][36] have been conducted to investigate the effect of geometric factors (number, height) on the performance of the collector of each model with varying flow velocities.…”