Thermal theoretical study on PV/T water based collectors

Simulations have been performed to investigate the effect of various mass flow rates against the thermal, electrical and combination of both photovoltaic thermal efficiencies of three absorber collectors design. The first collector, known as Spiral flow absorber collector, the second collector, known as Web absorber collector and the third collector, known as Oscillatory absorber collector. In this simulation, it is assumed that the absorber collectors are attached underneath the flat plate single glazing sheet of polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic module and water has been used as a heat transfer medium in absorber collectors respectively. The simulation results shows that the Single flow absorber collector generates combined PV/T efficiency of 64% with electrical efficiency of 11%, the Web absorber collector generates combined PV/T efficiency of 44% with electrical efficiency of 5.9% and the Oscillatory absorber collector generates combined PV/T efficiency of 40% with electrical efficiency of 5.4%. The mass flow rate is set at 0.011 kg/s for all absorber collectors. It is recommended for PV/T system to further improve its efficiency by optimizing the contact surfaces between the solar panel (photovoltaic module) and the absorber collector underneath.

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