Parabolic Trough Photovoltaic/Thermal Collectors: Design and Simulation Model

Abstract

This paper presents a design procedure and a simulation model of a novel concentrating PVT collector. The layout of the PVT system under investigation was derived from a prototype recently presented in literature and commercially available. The prototype consisted in a parabolic trough concentrator and a linear triangular receiver. In that prototype, the bottom surfaces of the receiver are equipped with mono-crystalline silicon cells whereas the top surface is covered by an absorbing surface. The aperture area of the parabola was covered by a glass in order to improve the thermal efficiency of the system. In the modified version of the collector considered in this paper, two changes are implemented: the cover glass was eliminated and the mono-crystalline silicon cells were replaced by triple-junction cells. In order to analyze PVT performance, a detailed mathematical model was implemented. This model is based on zero-dimensional energy balances. The simulation model calculates the temperatures of the main components of the system and the main energy flows Results showed that the performance of the system is excellent even when the fluid temperature is very high (>100 °C). Conversely, both electrical and thermal efficiencies dramatically decrease when the incident beam radiation decreases.

Modeling and Simulation of a Novel Combined Solar Photovoltaic-Thermal Panel and Heat Pump Hybrid System

“…The study presented herein is based on the work previously reported by Yang et al [1], and references [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] where a flat plate solar collector is attached to a PV panel. The hybrid system in question is composed of the PV solar panel and thermal solar tube collector as well as a heat pump as shown in Figure 1.…”

Concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) solar collector systems: Part I – Fundamentals, design considerations and current technologies

“…Calise and Vanoli [235] studied how varying the length of their proposed CPVT system affects performance. They found that both electrical and thermal efficiencies slightly decrease (o1%) for a length increase from 4 to 16 m. This is attributed to the increased cell temperature and the accompanying increased thermal losses.…”

Exergetic and exergoeconomic analysis of a renewable polygeneration system and viability study for small isolated communities

“…In particular, new TRNSYS types have been created for the CPVT and the MED. The model of the CPVT was recently presented in literature [33], whereas the MED model is described in detail in Ref. [13].…”