Hybrid photovoltaic and thermal solar-collector designed for natural circulation of water

Wei He, Tin-Tai Chow, Jie Ji, Jianping Lu, Gang Pei and Lok-shun Chan

Applied Energy, 2006, vol. 83, issue 3, 199-210

Abstract: The electricity conversion-efficiency of a solar cell for commercial application is about 6-15%. More than 85% of the incoming solar energy is either reflected or absorbed as heat energy. Consequently, the working temperature of the solar cells increases considerably after prolonged operations and the cell's efficiency drops significantly. The hybrid photovoltaic and thermal (PVT) collector technology using water as the coolant has been seen as a solution for improving the energy performance. Through good thermal-contact between the thermal absorber and the PV module, both the electrical efficiency and the thermal efficiency can be raised. Fin performance of the heat exchanger is one crucial factor in achieving a high overall energy yield. In this paper, the design developments of the PVT collectors are briefly reviewed. Our observation is that very few studies have been done on the PVT system adopting a flat-box absorber design. Accordingly, an aluminum-alloy flat-box type hybrid solar collector functioned as a thermosyphon system was constructed. While the system efficiencies did vary with the operating conditions, the test results indicated that the daily thermal efficiency could reach around 40% when the initial water-temperature in the system is the same as the daily mean ambient temperature.

Keywords: Photovoltaic; Thermosyphon; Hybrid; solar; system; Water-type; PVT; collector (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (77)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-2619(05)00046-2
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:83:y:2006:i:3:p:199-210

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

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 ().