A photovoltaic/thermal system with a combination of a booster diffuse reflector and vacuum tube for generation of electricity and hot water production

Using water as a coolant to reduce the temperature of solar cells is one of the best methods for improving the efficiency of a photovoltaic/thermal system. However the heat absorbed from the solar cell panel is not enough for providing domestic hot water. In this article, a new architecture of photovoltaic/thermal system is proposed and investigated. A silicon monocrystalline photovoltaic module is used with appropriate reflectors in order to increase insolation in conjunction with a closed loop cooling facility to efficiently extract the panel's heat. The absorbed heat from the photovoltaic/thermal panel, is used to preheat the water flow before entering four vacuum tube solar water heaters placed on both sides of the photovoltaic/thermal panel. Performance evaluation of this system in comparison to a similar bare photovoltaic panel, showed a significant increase in the system's electrical and thermal energy output.

[1]  Niccolò Aste,et al.  Water flat plate PV–thermal collectors: A review , 2014 .

[2]  Soteris A. Kalogirou,et al.  Hybrid PV/T solar systems for domestic hot water and electricity production , 2006 .

[3]  Mustafa İlkan,et al.  An experimental study on energy generation with a photovoltaic (PV)-solar thermal hybrid system , 2008 .

[4]  Y. Tripanagnostopoulos,et al.  Hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar systems , 2002 .

[5]  Hiroshi Tanaka,et al.  Solar thermal collector augmented by flat plate booster reflector: Optimum inclination of collector and reflector , 2011 .

[6]  Jai Prakash,et al.  Transient analysis of a photovoltaic-thermal solar collector for co-generation of electricity and hot air/water , 1994 .

[7]  Lj.T. Kostic,et al.  Optimal design of orientation of PV/T collector with reflectors , 2010 .

[8]  Shintaro Yokoyama,et al.  Field experiments and analyses on a hybrid solar collector , 2003 .

[9]  S. Kalogirou.  Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and Systems , 2009 .

[10]  Thomas Kirchartz,et al.  Advanced Characterization Techniques for Thin Film Solar Cells , 2016 .

[11]  Bin-Juine Huang,et al.  PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC / THERMAL SYSTEMS , 2001 .

[12]  Ahmed A. El Tayyan.  An Empirical model for Generating the IV Characteristics for a Photovoltaic System , 2006 .

[13]  Tin-Tai Chow,et al.  A Review on Photovoltaic/Thermal Hybrid Solar Technology , 2010, Renewable Energy.

[14]  Ha Herbert Zondag,et al.  The thermal and electrical yield of a PV-thermal collector , 2002 .

[15]  Kamaruzzaman Sopian,et al.  Efficiencies and improvement potential of building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) system , 2014 .

[16]  Mikhail Sorin,et al.  Explicit model of photovoltaic panels to determine voltages and currents at the maximum power point , 2011 .

[17]  Fuat Egelioğlu,et al.  A Review of Solar Photovoltaic Concentrators , 2014 .

[18]  Yiannis Tripanagnostopoulos,et al.  Aspects and improvements of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar energy systems , 2007 .

[19]  A. A. Al-Baali.  Improving the power of a solar panel by cooling and light concentrating , 1986 .

[20]  Luis Castañer,et al.  Solar Cells: Materials, Manufacture and Operation , 2004 .

[21]  Ha Herbert Zondag,et al.  The yield of different combined PV-thermal collector designs , 2003 .

[22]  Timothy Nicholas Anderson,et al.  Performance of a V-trough photovoltaic/thermal concentrator , 2014 .