Abstract:A novel double stage high-concentration hybrid solar photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) collector using nonimaging optics and world record thin film single-junction gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells has been developed. We present a detailed design and simulation of the system, experimental setup, prototype, system performance, and economic analysis. The system uses a parabolic trough (primary concentrator) to focus sunlight towards a secondary nonimaging compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) to simultaneously gener… Show more
Solar photovoltaic/thermal technology has been widely utilized in building service area as it generates thermal and electrical energy simultaneously. In order to improve the photovoltaic/thermal system performance, nanofluids are employed as the thermal fluid owing to its high thermal conductivity. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art of the photovoltaic/thermal systems with different loop-pipe configurations (including heat pipe, vacuum tube, roll-bond, heat exchanger, micro-channel, U-tube, triangular tube and heat mat) and nanoparticles (including Copper-oxide, Aluminium-oxide, Silicon carbide, Tribute, Magnesium-oxide, Cerium-oxide, Tungsten-oxide, Titanium-oxide, Zirconia-oxide, Graphene and Carbon). The influences of the critical parameters like nanoparticle optical and thermal properties, volume fraction, mass flux and mass flow rates, on the photovoltaic/thermal system performance are for the optimum energy efficiency. Furthermore, the structure and manufacturing of solar cells, micro-thermometry analysis of solar cells and recycling process of photovoltaic panels are explored. At the end, the standpoints, recommendations and potential future development on the solar photovoltaic/thermal system with various configurations and nanofluids are deliberated to overcome the barriers and challenges for the practical application. This study demonstrates that the advanced photovoltaic/thermal configuration could improve the system energy efficiency approximately 15%–30% in comparison with the conventional type whereas the nanofluid is able to boost the efficiency around 10%–20% compared to that with traditional working fluid.
Solar photovoltaic/thermal technology has been widely utilized in building service area as it generates thermal and electrical energy simultaneously. In order to improve the photovoltaic/thermal system performance, nanofluids are employed as the thermal fluid owing to its high thermal conductivity. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art of the photovoltaic/thermal systems with different loop-pipe configurations (including heat pipe, vacuum tube, roll-bond, heat exchanger, micro-channel, U-tube, triangular tube and heat mat) and nanoparticles (including Copper-oxide, Aluminium-oxide, Silicon carbide, Tribute, Magnesium-oxide, Cerium-oxide, Tungsten-oxide, Titanium-oxide, Zirconia-oxide, Graphene and Carbon). The influences of the critical parameters like nanoparticle optical and thermal properties, volume fraction, mass flux and mass flow rates, on the photovoltaic/thermal system performance are for the optimum energy efficiency. Furthermore, the structure and manufacturing of solar cells, micro-thermometry analysis of solar cells and recycling process of photovoltaic panels are explored. At the end, the standpoints, recommendations and potential future development on the solar photovoltaic/thermal system with various configurations and nanofluids are deliberated to overcome the barriers and challenges for the practical application. This study demonstrates that the advanced photovoltaic/thermal configuration could improve the system energy efficiency approximately 15%–30% in comparison with the conventional type whereas the nanofluid is able to boost the efficiency around 10%–20% compared to that with traditional working fluid.
“…In addition, the secondary concentrator could be CPC, CPC-type, or TIR collectors [61][62][63]. Mahmoud Abdelhamid [64,65] presented a new CPV/T structure to avoid the blocking loss of secondary concentrator. A small-scale CPC is put into the glass tube receiver together with the working fluid pipe.…”
Section: Reflection-type Two Elements Combinationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…CSP belongs to the hightemperature thermal application. For CT system, the most important thing is to collect the focused light efficiently, which requires complex composite surface structures [22][23][24][25]27,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], or multi-element combination forms [48][49][50][51][52][53][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]79,87]. In general, not a lot attention has been paid to the uniformity of focused light.…”
Section: Applicationmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In the references [89][90][91], beam splitter is utilized to separate light according to wavelengths and transmit them onto the corresponding receiver, so that light with different wavelengths could achieve the maximum energy conversion efficiency. On the other hand, many CPV/T systems are mainly focusing on CPV, and the collected heat is the recovered waste heat getting from the cooling of solar cell [29,30,64,65]. In addition, another commonly used aspect is daylighting [82][83][84], which generally need imaging concentrator, so that the converged lights can be conducted into the fiber easily.…”
Solar concentrator always plays an important role in solar energy collection as it could enhance the energy density effectively. Various structures of solar concentrators have been researched in recent years, among which multi-surface (MS) and multi-element (ME) combinations are the two typical structures. MS concentrator is an improved structure for single surface concentrator. It is usually designed to increase the acceptance angle, enhance the light intercepting efficiency, homogenize the energy distribution, etc. ME concentrator is generally consist of two or more optical elements, in which MS concentrators are usually used as assistant optical components. ME concentrator always has larger tolerance on tracking error so that it is much easier to track the sun. It could be applied in high power concentration. The combination on optical elements of MS and ME solar concentrators was diagramed and theirs advantages and disadvantages were evaluated. Nowadays, solar applications are becoming more and more diverse and concomitantly, the researching methods are also improving. The computer-aided methods including numerical computation and optical simulation are the dominant method in nowadays, which makes it easier to analyze various structures of solar concentrators and their complex applications. Besides, solar applications are not limited in CT and CPV, but in many other fields such as solar daylighting, solar-pumped laser, solar cooling, solar desalination etc. It has been believed that more and more innovative designs on solar concentrator will be proposed in the future.
“…Collectors equipped with concentration devices (mainly mirrors but even lenses) are employed in different fields of the solar conversion, including photovoltaic (PV) applications where the goal is to save precious semiconductor surface with respect to overall aperture area while maintaining an acceptable irradiance uniformity at the cell surface [4]. In the PV applications also, hybrid collectors (thermal and PV conversion) drew the attention of concentrating devices [5].…”
Concentrating the solar energy is a well-known technique for increasing the working temperatures of solar collectors while maintaining high conversion efficiencies. In the industrial and residential sectors medium temperature solar collectors (80-250°C) are gaining more and more interest for power production and absorption cycle applications. In the present paper the attention is focused on the design and testing of a solar collector where a high performance evacuated tube is coupled with a Compound Parabolic Concentrator. The design of the solar mirror is carried out by imposing a series of constraints related to a broad acceptance angle (about 30°), reduced mirror height, possibility to employ a displaced tubular receiver. The mirror surface was tested in laboratory with a ray tracing approach. The complete CPC collector was finally tested under real outdoor operating conditions according to the Standard EN 12975-2. In such a way the instantaneous efficiency of the collector has been evaluated. The main findings are related to the effects of the concentration ratio and truncated height on the collector efficiency; they also highlight some limits and possible corrections to be employed when the results of the Outdoor steady state test method are applied in daily simulations of the collector behavior.
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