Effect of air gap on a novel hybrid photovoltaic/thermal and thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle system

Xin Tang, Guiqiang Li and Xudong Zhao

Applied Energy, 2021, vol. 293, issue C, No S0306261921004396

Abstract: Electricity efficiency improvement of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector is still received much attention recently because solar energy is regarded as an effective and promising alternative to fossil fuels. A novel PV/T combined with a thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle (TREC) hybrid system is proposed in this paper to improve the overall electricity efficiency by means of converting the thermal energy from the hot water of the PV/T into electricity. As the heat gathering in the PV/T reduces the electrical efficiency of PV but improves both the thermal efficiency of the PV/T and electrical efficiency of the TREC, mathematic models are developed to assess and compare the performance of PV/T-TREC systems with and without air gap. The effects of heat recuperation as well as various working conditions on the overall electricity performance of hybrid systems are studied and analyzed. The results show that the PV/T-TREC hybrid system with air gap is superior to the one without air gap. Hybrid systems are better than PV/T and PV collector in all scenarios except for large wind velocity scenarios. The maximum improvement of the overall electrical efficiency is up to 1.79% at the solar radiation of 1000 W/m2. Additionally, at the ambient temperature of 5 °C, most cases at water inlet temperature below 15 °C can achieve a peak power generation. This paper may guide the design, optimization and application of the novel PV/T-TREC hybrid system to improve the overall electricity efficiency of solar energy.

Keywords: Photovoltaic; PV/T; Air gap; Thermally regenerative electrochemical cycle; Electrical efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921004396
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:293:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921004396

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116963

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().