Numerical and Experimental Study of a PVT Water System under Daily Weather Conditions

Abstract

Worldwide need for renewable energy sources increases significantly with the drastic negative greenhouse effects of climate change. This study considers a water-cooled hybrid thermo-electric panel (PV/T) which contributes to better harvesting of solar energy. A numerical CFD model was developed for power generation of a standard PV panel as well as for a water-based PV/T system laminated with polymer matrix composite (PMC) materials, and user-defined functions (UDFs) were developed and integrated with the CFD model to implement exact boundary conditions. Experimentation under daily weather conditions was carried out in order to validate the numerical CFD model by measuring the surface temperatures of PV and PV/T systems as well as the temperatures of the water inlet and outlet of the cooling system. The results show that the maximum and minimum deviations of the surface temperature between numerical and experimental studies matched well compared with the studies performed in the literature. Moreover, the numerical model had a rapid response to temperature changes of PV and PV/T modules under sudden weather changes (cloudy/sunny). It was shown that the electrical efficiency of the cooled PV/T module can achieve 20.8% in addition to a thermal efficiency of 53.5%. The current study is a validation of the performance of polymer composite laminated water-cooled PV/T systems under daily weather conditions.

A Review of Heat Dissipation and Absorption Technologies for Enhancing Performance in Photovoltaic–Thermal Systems

“…Further expanding on classifications, Oh et al [38] provided a broader categorization encompassing various systems based on the medium of heat extraction, type of heat extraction, solar input, system configuration, and the use of spectrum filters. Additionally, Figure 3 describes both conventional and novel PVT system techniques, along with their integration into various application areas [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46].…”

Mathematical Modeling and Numerical Approximation of Heat Conduction in Three-Phase-Lag Solid

“…In recent years, and mainly driven by concerns regarding climate change, there is a growing concern to investigate issues related to the global environment, where one of the areas is that related to energy [1][2][3]. More specifically, regarding energy, there are various investigations focused on its distinct aspects that range from improving energy efficiency [4,5], encouraging the energy refill of clean energy devices for transportation and heating [6,7], promoting the construction of buildings that guarantee low energy consumption [8][9][10], and the proposal of global policies that regulate the practices and guide the industrial activities that reduce CO 2 emissions [11,12].…”