Energy analysis of a hybrid solar concentrating photovoltaic/concentrating solar power (CPV/CSP) system

A review of concentrated photovoltaic-thermal (CPVT) hybrid solar systems with waste heat recovery (WHR)

“…The coolant R134a first absorbs the wasted heat of CPV modules, and then is heated to a higher temperature in the thermal receiver. Further studies [35,36] also showed that, if the thermal energy is used for electricity generation, the overall generating efficiency can be increased by 20% at 500 suns.…”

“…As thus, the central high concentrated illumination is received by the thermal receiver, and the remaining is converted by PV module. Reversed designs using high concentration area for PV and low concentration area for the thermal receiver were also proposed by Ju et al [34] and Han et al [35,36] for CPVT or CPV-CSP hybrid systems. Combinations of these three solar energy harness approaches may inspire novel designs and better performance, such as the combination of EDF and WHR concept [34][35][36], and the combination of interference/absorption SBS and WHR concept [37][38][39].…”

“…(Color online) The CPV-CSP hybrid system with an external thermal receiver: (a) the system schematic; (b) the solar receiver. Reprinted with permission from Ref [36]…”

A PVTC system integrating photon-enhanced thermionic emission and methane reforming for efficient solar power generation

“…Eqs. (9) and (10) can be applied to the solar PETE system with W FC , _ n H 2 and _ n CH 4 taken as 0 and for the solar MSR system with W PETE ðTÞ taken as 0.…”

“…Solar PVT is a comprehensive solar technology that integrates PV power generation and thermal (T) routes for utilization of residual heat from PV cells. In a typical PVT device, PV module is located before the thermal module, and electricity is first extracted out of the incident sunlight via the PV module, while the rest of the nonextractable solar energy is passed onto the thermal module in the form of heat for driving thermal cycles directly [9,10] or thermochemical reactions followed by thermal cycles for power generation [5,[11][12][13]. Among them, solar photovoltaic-thermochemical (PVTC) power generation systems with thermochemical reactions of fossil fuels offer distinct advantages over conventional ones with direct thermal cycles, such as high efficiency, stable power output, high solar share, low CO 2 emission, excellent energy storage capability, and round-the-clock service capabilities [13], among which certain features (e.g.…”