Experimental investigation of a novel solar flat copper tube loop-heat-pipe PV/T system for heating and power generation

Xiaoling Zhu, Yanping Yuan, Min Yu, Licheng Zhou and Jinzhi Zhou

Energy, 2025, vol. 320, issue C

Abstract: This paper experimentally investigates a novel flat copper tube loop heat pipe photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system, which employs PV-bound flat copper tubes array as the PV/evaporator with sintered copper powder wick inside the tubes, and a liquid upper-feeding LHP with a vapor-liquid separator. Results showed these specific designs improve the temperature uniformity and solar energy utilization of the PV/T module, achieving an average electrical efficiency of 15.7 %, solar thermal efficiency of 43.6 %, and overall efficiency of 59.3 % on a sunny day; the volume-filling ratio significantly impacts the system performance, where increasing volume-filling ratio initially led to an increase in solar thermal and overall efficiencies and then decrease with a peak volume-filling ratio of 120 %. Moreover, the temperature difference across the flat copper tube gradually decreased with the increase in the volume-filling ratio. Notably, the system demonstrated the highest overall efficiency of 62.5 % when the PV/T panel inclination was adjusted to 60°. When compared to a standalone PV system, this integrated PV/T system not only achieved a higher level of power generation but also exhibited superior electrical efficiency. Overall, compared to the existing PV/T system, the novel PV/T system achieved higher overall solar efficiency.

Keywords: Flat copper tube; Loop heat pipe; PV/T; Volume-filling ratio; Inclination; Efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:320:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225007522

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.135110

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