Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collector

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Schematic of a hybrid (PVT) solar collector:

1 - Anti-reflective glass
2 - EVA-encapsulant
3 - Solar PV cells
4 - EVA-encapsulant
5 - Backsheet (PVF)
6 - Heat exchanger (copper)
7 - Insulation (polyurethane)

Photovoltaic thermal hybrid solar collectors, sometimes known as hybrid PV/T

systems or PVT, are systems that convert solar radiation into thermal and electrical energy.
These systems combine a solar cell, which converts sunlight into electricity, with asolar thermal
collector, which captures the remaining energy and removes waste heat from the PV module. The
capture of both electricity and heat allow these devices to have higherexergy[1] and thus be more
overall energy efficient than solar photovoltaic (PV) or solar thermal alone.[2] A significant amount
of research has gone into developing PVT technology since the 1970s.[3]
Photovoltaic cells suffer from a drop in efficiency with the rise in temperature due to
increased resistance. Such systems can be engineered to carry heat away from the PV cells
thereby cooling the cells and thus improving their efficiency by lowering resistance.[4]Although this
is an effective method, it causes the thermal component to under-perform compared to a solar
thermal collector. Recent research showed that photovoltaic materials with low temperature
coefficients such as amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) PV allow the PVT to be operated at high
temperatures, creating a more symbiotic PVT system.[5][6] This advantage can be tuned by
controlling the dispatch strategy of thermal annealing cycles.[7]

Contents
[hide]

 1 System types
o 1.1 PV/T liquid collector
o 1.2 PV/T concentrator (CPVT)
 2 See also
  3 References

System types[edit]
A number of PV/T collectors in different categories are commercially available and can be divided
into the following categories:

 PV/T liquid collector

 PV/T air collector
 PV/Ta Liquid and air collector
 PV/T concentrator (CPVT)
PV/T liquid collector[edit]
The basic water-cooled design uses conductive-metal piping or plates attached to the back of a
PV module. The fluid flow arrangement through the cooling element will determine which systems
the panels are most suited to.
In a standard fluid based system, a working fluid, typically water, glycol or mineral oil is then
piped through these pipes or plate chillers. The heat from the PV cells are conducted through the
metal and absorbed by the working fluid (presuming that the working fluid is cooler than
theoperating temperature of the cells). In closed-loop systems this heat is either exhausted (to
cool it), or transferred at a heat exchanger, where it flows to its application. In open-loop systems,
this heat is used, or exhausted before the fluid returns to the PV cells.[8] It is also possible to
disperse nanoparticles in the liquid to create a liquid filter for PV/T applications.[9][10][11] The basic
advantage of this type of split configuration is that the thermal collector and the photovoltaic
collector can operate at different temperatures.
PV/T concentrator (CPVT)[edit]
A concentrating system has the advantage to reduce the amount of solar cells needed. It also can
get very good solar thermal performance compared to flat PV/T collectors. The main obstacles
are to provide good cooling of the solar cells and a durable tracking system. For more details, see
the discussion of CPVT within the article for concentrated photovoltaics.

See also[edit]
Renewable energy portal

Energy portal

 Solar air conditioning

 Zenith Solar
 Solimpeks
 solarus
 Photovoltaic system

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ M.J.M. Pathak, P.G. Sanders, J. M. Pearce, Optimizing
limited solar roof access by exergy analysis of solar thermal,
photovoltaic, and hybrid photovoltaic thermal systems, Applied
Energy, 120, pp. 115-124 (2014).
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.01.041 Open
access
2. Jump up^ Ahmad Mojiri, Robert A. Taylor, Elizabeth Thomsen,
Gary Rosengarten, Spectral beam splitting for efficient conversion
 of solar energy—A review, Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews Volume 28, December 2013, Pages 654–663
3. Jump up^ Chow, T. T. (2010). "A review on photovoltaic/thermal
hybrid solar technology". Applied Energy 87 (2): 365–
379. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2009.06.037.
4. Jump up^ S.A. Kalogirou, Y. Tripanagnostopoulos (30 January
2006). These systems are most often used for domestic hot water
(DHW) and electricity production
5. Jump up^ Pathak, M.J.M.; Pearce, J.M.; Harrison, S.J. (2012).
"Effects on amorphous silicon photovoltaic performance from high-
temperature annealing pulses in photovoltaic thermal hybrid
devices". Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 100: 199–
203. arXiv:1203.1216. doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2012.01.015.
6. Jump up^ M.J.M Pathak, K. Girotra, S.J. Harrison and J.M.
Pearce, The Effect of Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Device
Operating Conditions on Intrinsic Layer Thickness Optimization of
Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells, Solar Energy 86, pp.
2673-2677 (2012).DOI
7. Jump up^ J. Rozario, A.H. Vora, S.K. Debnath, M.J.M. Pathak,
J.M. Pearce, The effects of dispatch strategy on electrical
performance of amorphous silicon-based solar photovoltaic-
thermal systems, Renewable Energy 68, pp. 459–465 (2014). open
access
8. Jump up^ Y. Tripanagnostopoulos, M. Souliotis, R. Battisti, A.
Corrado "APPLICATION ASPECTS OF HYBRID PV/T SOLAR
SYSTEMS"http://www.ecn.nl/fileadmin/ecn/units/egon/pvt/pdf/ises0
3_lca.pdf
9. Jump up^ Taylor, R.A., Otanicar, T., Rosengarten, G., Nanofluid-
based optical filter optimization for PV/T systems, Light: Science &
Applications (2012) 1, e34;doi:10.1038/lsa.2012.34
10. Jump up^ Taylor, R.A., Otanicar, T, Herukerrupu, Y, Bremond, F,
Rosengarten, G, Hawkes, E, Jiang, X. and Coulombe, S 2013,
'Feasibility of nanofluid-based optical filters', Applied Optics, vol.
52, no. 7, pp. 1413-1422.
11. Jump up^ T. P. Otanicar, R. A. Taylor, and C.
Telang, Photovoltaic/thermal system performance utilizing thin film
and nanoparticle dispersion based optical filters, J. Renewable
Sustainable Energy 5, 033124
(2013); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4811095

[show]

 V

 T

 E

Photovoltaics

Categories:
 Solar thermal energy
 Solar cells
 Photovoltaics
Navigation menu
 Create account

 Log in
 Article
  Talk
 Read
 Edit
 View history
Go

 Main page
 Contents
 Featured content
 Current events
 Random article
 Donate to Wikipedia
 Wikipedia store
Interaction
 Help
 About Wikipedia
 Community portal
 Recent changes
 Contact page
Tools
 What links here
 Related changes
 Upload file
 Special pages
 Permanent link
 Page information
 Wikidata item
 Cite this page
Print/export
 Create a book
 Download as PDF
 Printable version
Languages
 Italiano
 Slovenščina
Edit links
 This page was last modified on 8 April 2015, at 15:17.
 Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of
Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.