Evaluation of various collector configurations for a photovoltaic thermal system to achieve high performance, low cost, and lightweight

Arash Kazemian, Tao Ma and Yang Hongxing

Applied Energy, 2024, vol. 357, issue C, No S0306261923017865

Abstract: This study evaluates different collector configurations of a photovoltaic thermal system to identify the most effective design for achieving high electrical and thermal powers, exergy, low-pressure drops, and short payback time. Based on the authors' most recent information, previous studies have identified three gaps in the literature: rare research on the comparison between various collector designs such as grids, serpentine paths, wavy paths, parallel paths, spiral paths, etc.; little research on the distribution of surface temperature and pressure drop for different collector configurations under the same wetted area; and a lack of consideration of the cost and weight of collector and absorber layers for different materials. To address these research gaps, we investigated various collector designs, lengths and materials and analyzed their impact on the system performance. Our findings demonstrate that the photovoltaic thermal system with the multi-path serpentine design is the most effective in terms of overall power, with an average overall power output of 423.84 W/m2. Furthermore, the photovoltaic thermal system with aluminum offers the most significant cost efficiency, with a payback time of 2.58 years, and weighs 42% less than the system with copper.

Keywords: Photovoltaic thermal; Collector design; Energy and exergy analysis; Economic analysis; System weight and pressure drop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923017865
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:357:y:2024:i:c:s0306261923017865

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.2023.122422

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 ().