Energetic and Exergetic Comparison of Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Arrays

The study presents the overall thermal energy and exergy analysis of three types of hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) array which is a series parallel combination of 36 numbers of PV modules (10.08m x 2.16m). A comparison has been made between the three configurations, which are explained as, case-A: 2 integrated columns each having 18 opaque PV modules in series are connected in parallel, case-B: Two integrated columns of 18 modules each having 36 PVT tiles in the module is connected in series (area of each tile is 0.124m x 0.124m) and case-C: 2 integrated columns each having 18 semi-transparent PV modules in series are connected in parallel. A one-dimensional transient model for hybrid PVT array has been developed using basic heat transfer equations. The performance of the three cases has been compared on the basis of annual overall thermal energy and exergy gain for four different climatic conditions (Bangalore, Jodhpur, New Delhi, and Srinagar) of India. As compared with case-A and case-B, case-C has lower cell temperature (28.8% and 12.1%), higher electrical efficiency (9.9% and 3.1%) and higher average outlet air temperature (40.6% and 19.1%). In all the cases, the month of May yields the highest value of overall thermal energy gain and electrical energy gain. The overall annual thermal energy and exergy gain is highest for Bangalore among all cities and case-C yields the highest value of 5.24×104 kWh (higher by 15.3% and 5.0% from case-A and 2) and 2.44×104 kWh (higher by 17.3% and 7.3% from case-A and 2) respectively. As far as overall performance is considered, configuration under case-C offers a greater potential of energy saving as compared to the other two cases.

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