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Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Application of genetic algorithm with multi-objective function

to improve the efficiency of glazed photovoltaic thermal system
for New Delhi (India) climatic condition
Sonveer Singh a,b, Sanjay Agarwal c,d,⇑, G.N. Tiwari e, Deepika Chauhan f
a
CMS Government Girls Polytechnic Daurala, Meerut 250221, India
b
S.I.T.E., S.V. Subharti University, Meerut, India
c
SMERC, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
d
School of Engineering and Technology, IGNOU, New Delhi 110068, India
e
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India
f
Jagannath University, Jaipur, India

Received 1 January 2015; received in revised form 7 April 2015; accepted 20 April 2015

Communicated by: Associate Editor Bibek Bandyopadhyay

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate an improvement in the efficiency of photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system with the help of Genetic
Algorithm (GA) with multi-objective functions for New Delhi, India climatic condition. There are several parameters influencing effi-
ciency of PVT system which inter alia include length and depth of the channel, velocity of air fluid flowing into the channel, thickness
of the tedlar and glass, temperature of inlet fluid. All these parameters have been considered to optimize the efficiency of the PVT system.
An attempt has also been made to model and optimize the parameters of glazed hybrid single channel PVT module considering the two
objective functions separately which are: (i) the overall exergy efficiency (ii) the overall thermal efficiency. Using GA, both of the above
objective functions are separately optimized and analyzed for each of the two cases: namely, Case-I: Improvement in exergy and thermal
efficiency when overall exergy efficiency is optimized and Case-II: Improvement in exergy and thermal efficiency when overall thermal
efficiency is optimized. The variables used in GA are those that could be varied, keeping parameters like solar radiation, ambient tem-
perature unchanged in the algorithmic calculation. The electrical and thermal efficiencies after optimization were found 14.15%, 11.88%
and 14.08%, 19.48% respectively. Similarly the overall exergy and thermal efficiency are 14.87% and 56.54% respectively for both the
cases. It has been observed that there is improvement in overall exergy efficiency and overall thermal efficiency by 4.6% and 13.14%
respectively during the optimization process.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm; PVT; Exergy; Multi objective

⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Engineering and Technology,
IGNOU, New Delhi 110068, India. Tel.: +91 9911422863, +91
9412895695.
E-mail addresses: sanju.aggrawal@gmail.com (S. Agarwal), svsingh_
dei06@rediffmail.com (S. Singh).
1. Introduction
The few works have been done on the PVT module
using Genetic algorithm. Some related work reported in
the literature. The novelty of the work produced in the
paper is to optimize the parameter of Glazed PVT module,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2015.04.025
0038-092X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
154 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166

Nomenclature

ASC area of the solar cell, m2 b width of the channel, m

d depth of the channel, m QU useful heat, W
Cair specific heat of air, J/kg K dx small length, m
dt small time, s In incident solar intensity, W/m2
KT thermal conductivity, W/m K L length of the channel, m
NC number of channel in SCPVT module TA ambient temperature, K
U overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K TAvg average temperature, K
Vair velocity of air, m/s Am area of module, m2
VF velocity of fluid (air) in channel, m/s nR number of rows in solar PVT module
b0 temperature coefficient of efficiency, 1/K TFO temperature of fluid at outlet, K
gC,power power conversion factor b packing factor
a absorptivity s transmitivity
g efficiency TFI temperature of fluid at inlet, K
q density, kg/m3
h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K Subscripts
hTA heat transfer coefficients from back of tedlar to A ambient
ambient, W/m2 K SC solar cell
hGA heat transfer coefficients from top glass cover to GA glass cover to ambient
ambient, W/m2 K IA insulation to ambient
hTF heat transfer coefficients from back of tedlar to Avg average
flowing air (fluid), W/m2 K R rows
hIA heat transfer coefficients from back of insulation FI fluid at inlet
to ambient, W/m2 K eff effective
USCAG an overall heat transfer coefficient from solar C channel
cell to ambient through glass cover, W/m2 K TA tedlar to ambient
USCFT an overall heat transfer coefficient from solar TF tedlar to flowing fluid
cell to fluid through tedlar, W/m2 K T thermal
UFA an overall back loss heat transfer coefficient TC test condition
from fluid to ambient, W/m2 K F fluid
mF mass flow rate of fluid (air) in channel, kg/s FO fluid at outlet
gTC efficiency at standard test condition when U useful
In = 1000 W/m2 and TA = 25 °C

of which modeling of such system is reported in literature.
There are improvements found in overall exergy and over-
all thermal energy efficiencies when optimization has been
done. Depleting fuel reserves, multiplying energy demand,
rapid rise in the fuel import bill, and compulsions of Kyoto
protocol insisting to minimize Greenhouse-gas (GHG)
emissions exert irresistible pressure on India to harness
renewable energy resources as the more suitable alternative
to fossil fuels for electricity generation. It is high time for
the country to change country’s energy basket by shifting
its focus from conventional fossil fuels (coal and diesel)
to renewable energy resources for electricity generation.
Lots of theoretical and experimental work on hybrid pho-
tovoltaic thermal systems is reported in the literature.
These (PVT) systems preliminarily utilize thermal energy
from the sun to produce electrical energy. Zondag et al.
(2002) have developed the model of a hybrid PVT air col-
lector and performed experimental studies on the systems
of varying sizes. The exergy based cost analysis popularly
called exergoeconomic analysis (also known as exergetic
cost analysis) has been developed and utilized by many
researchers including Rosen and Dincer (2003) for years
together. Coventry (2005) studied the performance of a
concentrating PVT collector and reported overall thermal
and electrical efficiency of concentrating PV/T system as
58% and 11%, respectively. This implies an overall effi-
ciency of the PV/T system as 69%. Exergy is a consistent
measure of economic value as opined in many of the
researches. Tiwari et al. (2006) have validated the theoret-
ical and experimental results for PV module integrated
with air duct for composite climate of India and concluded
that an overall thermal efficiency of PVT system is signifi-
cantly increased to 18% due to the utilization of thermal
energy from PV module. Chow et al. (2007) found that
forced convective cooling under a higher coolant flow
velocity gives better results than the natural flow design.
Nevertheless, the additional fan power consumption
reduces the net electrical gain of the system. Tonui and
Tripanagnostopoulos (2008) used free air convective cool-
ing to remove heat from the back of the PV modules and
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166
to keep the electrical efficiency at an acceptable level. Free
air convective cooling is simple and cost effective but a
forced flow scheme provides desirable cooling rate at all
times. Dubey and Tiwari (2009) have made a detailed anal-
ysis of thermal energy, exergy and electrical energy yield by
varying the number of collectors and considering four
weather conditions. Agrawal and Tiwari (2011a) have done
performance evaluation of hybrid modified micro-channel
solar cell thermal tile which was an experimental valida-
tion. Agrawal and Tiwari (2011b) have also reported exper-
imental validation of glazed hybrid micro-channel solar cell
thermal tile and concluded that the glazed hybrid MCPVT
module gives higher electrical efficiency in comparison with
SCPVT module by 26.7% and obtained 20.28% overall
exergy efficiency. Dupeyrat et al. (2011) introduced a differ-
ent approach to analyze thermal and optical properties
related to both PV and solar thermal functions in order
to identify an optimum combination leading to a maximum
overall efficiency. Agrawal and Tiwari (2011c) also pre-
sented the concept of series and parallel connections of
micro-channel solar cell thermal tiles to analyze overall
energy and exergy of hybrid micro-channel PVT module.
Kumar and Rosen Mark (2011) have critically reviewed
PVT air collectors for air heating providing useful results
relating to the practicability of these collectors for preheat-
ing air to suit a large variety of applications. Rajoria et al.
(2012) have performed overall thermal energy and exergy
analysis of hybrid PVT array considering four array config-
uration and concluded that the performance of case III is
better than rest of the cases. Singh et al. (2012) have per-
formed comparative study of different types of hybrid pho-
tovoltaic thermal air collectors and reported that overall
annual thermal energy, exergy gain and exergy efficiency
of unglazed hybrid PVT tiles air collector was improved
by 32%, 55.9% and 53% respectively, over the conventional
PVT air collectors. Hamidreza and Keith (2013) developed
a model for controlling the temperature of the photovoltaic
cell and keep it under a specific limit for different condi-
tions they have also done genetic algorithm based opti-
mization to find the optimal value of the supplied
electrical current for the thermoelectric cooling module
which leads to the maximum generated power by the
system.
Venkateswarlu et al. (2013) have done modeling and
parameter extraction of PV modules using GAs and differ-
ential evaluation. Buonomano et al. (2014) presented an
analysis of a possible energy retrofit of an existing
University Hospital District, located in Naples (Italy), by
using an innovative renewable poly generation system
and provided the results for energy and economic point
of view. The economic results show that the system can
be profitable (pay-back period around 12 years) even with-
out any public funding. The thermo-economic optimiza-
tion, based on a mixed heuristic/deterministic algorithm,
also has been showed by them and concluded that the sys-
tem profitability can be further improved, increasing solar
field area and decreasing storage specific volumes for m2 of
155
collectors installed. Singh et al. (2015) have developed a
model for single channel unglazed PVT module and opti-
mized design parameter using Genetic Algorithms and con-
cluded that the maximum overall exergy efficiency is
16.88% at optimized parameters. Lamnatou et al. (2015)
have presented a paper for critical review about solar sys-
tem modeling with emphasis on BIST configurations.
They also included the BI solar systems which produce
electricity or both electrical/thermal energy in order to pro-
vide a more complete view of the current literature. They
also focused on modeling studies about the solar system
itself. The results reveal that most of the investigations
about BI configurations refer to PVT, PV or skin façades
while there are few studies about BIST systems.
2. System explanation
In this Paper, the proposed module comprises channel
between tedlar and insulation. The glass is considered
above the solar cell structure. The schematic view of pho-
tovoltaic thermal module is shown in Fig. 1. The module
is called single channel photovoltaic thermal module
(SCPVTM). The side view of SCPVTM is shown in
Fig. 2. In order to obtain maximum overall exergy effi-
ciency and overall thermal efficiency, different parameters
of SCPVTM are optimized using GAs. When solar radia-
tion impinge on PV module, the solar energy is converted
into electrical energy and thermal energy. Out of these,
electrical energy is stored in a battery. The front surface
of a PV module must have a high transmission in the wave-
lengths which can be used by the solar cells in the PV mod-
ule. For silicon solar cells, the top surface must have high
transmission of light in the wavelength range of 350–
1200 nm. In addition, the reflection from the front surface
should be low. While theoretically this reflection could be
reduced by applying an anti-reflection coating to the top
surface, in practice these coatings are not robust enough
to withstand the conditions in which most PV systems
are used.
Due to thermal energy the PV cell gets heated resulting
in reduced electrical efficiency because solar cells in the
module are made with semiconductor material.
Therefore, maintaining electrical efficiency of PV module
by heat removal becomes essential. The module assumes
solar radiation being absorbed by solar cell and heat energy
due to radiation conducting to the base of the tedlar from
thermal heating air flowing into the channel below the ted-
lar as shown in Fig. 1.
3. Mathematical modeling of the system
In order to write the energy balance equation of SCPVT
module, the following assumptions are made:
1. There is no temperature gradient along thickness of
the solar cell.
2. Heat capacity of solar cell is negligible.
156 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166

Glass

Cell

Inlet Air Insulation

Channel
Tedlar

Fig. 1. Proposed single channel glazed photovoltaic thermal module (SCGPVTM).

h TA Solar light USCAG ½Rate of heat transfer from solar cell to flowing fluid
h GA
ðairÞ through tedlar
Glass
Cell ¼ ½The rate of heat gain by flowing fluid i:e:
Tedlar
Channel h TF USCFT air in channel
back þ ½Rate of heat transfer from flowing fluid to ambient
Insulation
h IA UFA dT F
U SCFT ðT SC  T F Þbdx ¼ mF C air dx þ U FA ðT F  T A Þbdx
Fig. 2. Side view of single channel glazed photovoltaic thermal module. dx
ð3Þ

3. Specific heat of air remains constant. where mF = qLdVF.

4. The system is in quasi-steady state throughout dur- Solving Eqs. (1)–(3), the outlet temperature (TFON),
ing observation. instantaneous thermal (gth) and electrical efficiency (g) at
5. Packing factor is unity. Nth number of glazed hybrid single channel solar cell ther-
mal tile connected in series are given by
The SCPVT cell is shown in Fig. 1. The small area of    
hp aeff NbU L L
SCPVT cell is bdx. The energy balance equation of glazed T FON ¼ In þ T A 1  exp þ T FI
UL mF C air
hybrid SCPVT cell as given by Agrawal and Tiwari  
(2011b), is as follows NbU L L
 exp ð4Þ
mF C air
½Rate of solar energy available on glazed solar cell
¼ ½Rate of heat loss from top surface of solar cell where
 1  1
to ambient through glass over Lg 1 LT 1
U SCAG ¼ þ U SCFT ¼ þ
þ ½Rate of heat transfer from solar cell to K g hGA K T hTF
flowing fluid i:e: air through tedlar  1  
Lin 1 U SCFT
U FA ¼ þ hp ¼
þ ½Rate of electrical energy produced K in hIA U SCAG þ U SCFT
 1
½ac sg In  bdx ¼ ½U SCAG ðT SC  T A Þbdx 1 1
U fa ¼ þ U L ¼ U FA þ U fa
þ ½U SCFT ðT SC  T F Þbdx þ ½sg gTC In  bdx U SCFT U SCAG
ð1Þ The thermal gain derived by Agrawal and Tiwari
Solving Eq. (1), we have (2011b) is found as:
   
aeff In þ U SCAG T A þ U SCFT T F mF C air NbU L L ðT FI  T A Þ
T SC ¼ ð2Þ gth ¼ 1  exp hp aeff  U L
U SCAG þ U SCFT U L NASC mF C air In
ð5Þ
where aeff = sg(aSC – gTC).
Energy balance for air flowing into the channel of Single The rate of useful thermal energy obtained for the nR
channel PVT for elemental area bdx is given by – row of SCPVT module is calculated as:
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166 157
 
hp aeff Table 1
QU ;N ¼ nR mF C air In þ T A  T FI Design parameters.
UL
   S. No. Parameters Values
N C bU L L
 1  exp ð6Þ 1. Vair, m/s 1.5
mF C air 2. TFO 25 °C
3. Kg, W/m K 1.1
4. KT, W/m K 0.033
3.1. Instantaneous electrical efficiency 5. Cair, J/kg K 1012
6. hGA, W/m2 K 5.7 + 3.8 * Vair
Electrical efficiency of solar cell depends on solar cell 7. hIA, W/m2 K 2.8 + 3 * VF
temperature as given by Schott (1985) and Evans (1981) 8. b0, 1/K 0.0045
and can be written as: 9. gTC 0.15
  10. N 4
g ¼ g0 ½1  b0 T SCavg  T O  ð7Þ 11. nR 9
12. q, kg/m3 1.29
An expression for electrical efficiency of hybrid SCPVT 13. sg 0.95
which is a temperature dependent is given by Agrawal and 14. aC 0.9
15. Kin, W/m K 0.089
Tiwari (2011b) as follows:
16. hTF, W/m K 4.3
 
aeff In
g ¼ gTC 1  b0  ðT FO  T A Þ The expression for input exergy is given by Petela (2003)
U SCAG þ U SCFT
8
9 as
< NbU L L =
U SCFT hp aeff In exp mF C air "      4 #
þ 1
X 4 TA 1 TA
U L ðU SCAG þ U SCFT Þ : NbU L L ; ExIN ¼ ASC N C  In 1  þ
mF C air 3 T Sun 3 T Sun
8
9 93
U SCFT <1  exp NbU LL =
mF C air
= ð14Þ
þ
ðT A  T FI Þ 5 ð8Þ
U SCAG þ U SCFT : NbU L L ; ; where Am is a area of module and TSun is the sun
mF C air
temperature.
The exergy efficiency of SCPVT module is given by
3.1.1. Energy analysis Agrawal and Tiwari (2011c) as follows:
 
The energy analysis is based on the first law of thermo- ExOUT
dynamics, and total thermal gain can be represented as gEx ¼  100 ð15Þ
ExIN
follows:
P
X X QU ;EL
QUT ¼ QU ;Th þ ð9Þ 3.1.3. Constant design parameter
gC;power Design parameters of SCPVT module are given in
where Table 1.
X QU ;N 4. Optimization through genetic algorithm
QU ;Th ¼ ð10Þ
1000
Here gC,power is a electric power generation efficiency con- Optimization is the process by which maximization or
version factor of a conventional power plant. For India this minimization of real function can be done by choosing input
efficiency is in the range, 0.20–0.40 as studied by Huang values within an allowed boundary and computing the value
et al. (2001) which is based on the quality of coal. of function. This process is repeated continuously and sys-
Usually it is taken as 0.38. tematically until the desired value of the function is
obtained. Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are adaptive heuristic
search which is based on evolutionary ideas of natural selec-
3.1.2. Exergy analysis
tion and genetics. It is used to solve the problems which ter-
The general exergy balance as per Agrawal and Tiwari
minate in a finite number of steps or iterative methods that
(2011c) for a Single channel PVT module can be expressed
converge to a solution. The basic techniques of the GAs
as:
X X X are designed to simulate processes in natural systems neces-
ExOUT ¼ ExTh þ ExEL ð11Þ sary for evolution; especially those following the principles
that were first laid down by Charles Darwin of survival of
where the fittest theory. In nature, there exists competition among
X  
T A þ 273 individuals to gain access over scanty resources resulting in
ExTh ¼ QU ;N 1  ð12Þ the domination of fittest individuals over the weaker ones.
T FO þ 273
X   GAs are based on analogy with the genetic structure and
gAm In the behavior of chromosomes within a population of indi-
ExEL ¼ ð13Þ
1000 viduals using the following basic rules:
158 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166
 Individuals in a population compete for resources and
mates.
 The individuals that are most successful in each compe-
tition shall produce more off springs than those perform-
ing poorly.
 Genes from good individuals propagate throughout the
population implying that two good parents shall gener-
ally produce offspring who are better equipped than
those from poorly performing parents.
Thus, each successive generation will become more sui-
ted. The flow chart relating to the Genetic Algorithm is
shown in Fig. 3. The details of the proposed genetic algo-
rithm are given as follows.
4.1. Coding and initialization
In order to solve the specified problem with genetic algo-
rithms, variables are coded in some string structures. There
are some of the studies in which directly variables values
are taken, but in the present GA work with binary coded
variable strings. The proposed GA works with a popula-
tion of binary string, not the parameters themselves. For
simplicity and convenience, binary coding is used in this
paper.
The proposed genetic algorithm starts with initialization
of input data and various parameters such as population
size, maximum numbers of generation, number of genes
(control variables) in each chromosome, crossover proba-
bility (PC) and mutation probability (PM).
4.2. Genetic operators
The following genetic operators are adopted in the
proposed algorithm.
Fig. 3. Genetic algorithm flow chart.
4.2.1. Roulette wheel selection
In roulette selection chromosomes are selected based on
their fitness relative to all other chromosomes in the popu-
lation as shown in Fig. 4. Parents are selected according to
their fitness in a Roulette wheel every chromosome has its
place big according to its fitness function like in Fig. 4.
Chromosome with bigger fitness will be selected more
times. One disadvantage of using roulette wheel is that its
selective pressure reduces as population converges upon a
solution, which reduces the convergence rate and may
not allow finding the better solutions.
4.2.2. Crossover
In the crossover operation with crossover probability
(PC), select two parents and randomly selects a point
between two genes to cut both chromosomes into two
parts. This point is called crossover point. In crossover
operation combine the first part of first parent and second
part of second parent to get first offspring. Similarly, com-
bine the first part of second parent and second part of first
parent to get second offspring. These off-springs belong to
the next population. The crossover operator has three dis-
tinct sub-steps as follows:
 Slice each of the parent strings in two substrings.
 Exchange a pair of corresponding substrings of
parents.
Fig. 4. Roulette wheel selection.
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166
 Merge the two respective substrings to
off-springs.
4.2.3. Mutation
The mutation operator selects a gene of any chromo-
some of current population and changes the allele by an
amount called the mutation variance, this happens with a
mutation probability (PM). The parameter mutation vari-
ance and mutation frequency have a major influence on
the quality of learning algorithms. For the proposed binary
coded GA mutation is equivalent of flipping a bit at any
particular position. Since, mutation is to be used sparingly
its probability is very low.
4.2.4. Reproduction
Reproduction is based on the principle of survival of the
better fitness. It is an operator that obtains a fixed number
of copies of solutions according to their fitness value. If the
score increases, then the number of copies increases too. A
score value is of associated to a given solution according to
its distance of the optimal solution (closer distances to the
optimal solution mean higher scores).
4.2.5. Methodology adopted
 Identify control parameters influencing overall exergy
efficiency of the proposed SCPVT module.
 Define upper and lower bound of each parameter value
feasible for designing the SCPVT module.
 Decide the objective function also known as fitness func-
tion. In this paper there are two objective function one
is; overall exergy efficiency and second is; overall ther-
mal efficiency.
 MATLAB program has been developed for optimizing
each parameter as based on the flow chart shown in
Fig. 3.
Fig. 5. (a) Variation in fitness value with respect to generation, while objective function is overall exergy efficiency. (b) Variation in overall exergy
efficiency with respect to generation, while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.
159
form 5. Results and discussion
In this paper, different parameters like depth of the
channel (d), Length of the channel (L), depth of the top
glass cover (Lg), thickness of the tedlar (Lt), thickness of
the insulation (Lin), velocity of the fluid i.e. air (VF) and
inlet air temperature (TFI) have been optimized for maxi-
mizing efficiency of photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system.
Genetic Algorithm is applied to the problem to optimize
values of each parameter in order to maximize overall effi-
ciency. The choice of 1 h or single data is used for the opti-
mization of the design parameters of system as given in
Table 2 and after optimizing the parameter further analysis
has been done for a complete day and the hourly input data
for a complete day is given in Table 5. The input data con-
sidered for analysis has been obtained from IMD, Pune for
a New Delhi, India for a complete year (2009) for four
weather conditions like clear days, hazy days, hazy and
cloudy days and cloudy days called as Set A to Set D
respectively as considered by Agrawal and Tiwari
(2011a). The number of clear days fall in different weather
conditions for New Delhi are shown in Table 6.
The following procedure is adopted for this purpose.
5.1. Case-I: Improvement in exergy and thermal efficiency
when overall exergy efficiency is optimized
5.1.1. Analysis on single data at 11:00 AM
Overall exergy efficiency of single channel glazed PVT
module has been optimized and observations are shown
in Figs. 5–10. The input data at 11:00 AM is shown in
Table 2.
The variation in fitness value and overall exergy effi-
ciency with respect to generation have been observed
shown in Fig. 5(a) and (b) respectively whereby the maxi-
mum overall exergy efficiency of SCPVT module is found
to be 14.87%. It is clear that the value of overall exergy
160 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166

Table 2 5.1.2. Analysis for a complete day from 08:00 AM to 05:00

Input data at 11:00 AM. PM
S. No. Name of input parameter Value of parameter Overall exergy efficiency is calculated for a complete day
1. Intensity of solar light (In) 680.73 W/m2 from 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM at optimized parameters. The
2. Ambient temperature (TA) 6.6 °C optimized parameters are given in Table 3. The input data
for complete day is shown in Table 5.
Figs. 6 and 7 shows variation in overall exergy efficiency
efficiency has been optimized by genetic algorithm within and Cell temperature with respect to time respectively and
1500 generations. it has been observed that the exergy efficiency is maximum
Output observed at 11:00 AM: (15.8%) when cell temperature is minimum at 8:00 AM
The maximum overall exergy efficiency of single channel while the exergy efficiency is minimum (14.6%) when the
PVT module is 14.87% which is obtained at optimized cell temperature is maximum at 1:00 PM and concluded
parameters. The optimized parameters are given in that the exergy efficiency depends on the cell temperature.
Table 3. The convergence curve (i.e. overall exergy effi- From Fig. 8, it is observed that the trend of exergy effi-
ciency Vs generation curve) is shown in Fig. 5. The results ciency is similar to the trend of overall exergy efficiency. So
of analysis done at 11:00 AM are shown in Table 4.

16 16

15.5
Overall exergy efficiency, %

Exergy efficiency, %

15.5
15

14.5

15

14

13.5
14.5 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Time, h
Time, h
Fig. 8. Variation in exergy efficiency with respect to time (08:00 AM to
Fig. 6. Variation in overall exergy efficiency with respect to time (08:00 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.
AM to 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.

20
55

50
15

45
Thermal efficiency, %
Cell temperature, oC

40 10

35

5
30

25
0

20

15 -5
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time, h Time, h

Fig. 7. Variation in cell temperature with respect to time (08:00 AM to Fig. 9. Variation in thermal efficiency with respect to time (08:00 AM to
05:00 PM), while objective function is overall exergy efficiency. 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166 161

it has been observed that the effect of thermal efficiency on Fig. 9 leads to the conclusion that thermal efficiency is
overall exergy efficiency is less while overall exergy effi- regularly increasing during day time but it is not influenc-
ciency has been optimized. ing the overall exergy efficiency in the same way.
From Fig. 10 it is noted that the trend of overall thermal
60 efficiency is similar to the trend of thermal efficiency.
There is 4.6% improvement in overall exergy efficiency
58
while overall exergy efficiency has been optimized.
56
Overall thermal efficiency, %

54 5.1.3. Analysis for a complete year

52
Overall exergy efficiency is evaluated for a year from
January to December at optimized parameters (Table 3).
50
Fig. 11 shows variation in overall exergy efficiency with
48 respect to month including all weather conditions. It leads
to the conclusion that overall exergy efficiency is maximum
46

44

42 16.5

40 16
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time, h
15.5
Overall exergy efficiency, %
Fig. 10. Variation in overall thermal efficiency with respect to time (08:00
AM to 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall exergy efficiency. 15

14.5
Table 3
Optimized parameters when overall exergy efficiency is optimized. 14
Parameter Optimized value
Thickness of channel (d) 0.00082 m 13.5

Length of channel (L) 0.0341 m

Thickness of back insulation Lin 0.1200 m 13
Velocity of flowing fluid (VF) 1.0709 m/s
Thickness of tedlar (Lt) 0.0001 m 12.5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Thickness of top glass cover (Lg) 0.00016 m
Month, January to December
Temperature of fluid at inlet (TFI) 15 °C
Fig. 11. Variation in overall exergy efficiency with respect to months
including all weather conditions, while objective function is overall exergy
Table 4 efficiency.
Results obtained at 11:00 AM when overall exergy efficiency is optimized.
S. No. Parameters Values (%)
5
1. Overall exergy efficiency 14.87
2. Thermal efficiency 11.88 4.5
Overall thermal gain for New Delhi, kWh

3. Exergy efficiency 14.15

4
4. Overall thermal efficiency 49.11
3.5

3
Table 5
Input data for a complete day from 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM. 2.5
S. No. Time Intensity of Ambient
2
light (W/m2) temperature (°C)
1. 08:00 AM 132.99 7.90 1.5
2. 09:00 AM 355.56 7.90
3. 10:00 AM 554.69 7.90 1
4. 11:00 AM 680.73 6.60
0.5
5. 12:00 Noon 726.74 6.40
6. 01:00 PM 733.85 7.70 0
7. 02:00 PM 656.08 10.60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
8. 03:00 PM 500.00 13.00 Month, January to December
9. 04:00 PM 311.46 15.00
Fig. 12. Variation in overall thermal gain with respect to month including
10. 05:00 PM 106.42 16.50
all weather conditions, while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.
162 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166

(15.68%) for the month January and minimum (12.71%) 5.1.4. Optimization for a complete year from January to
for the month of May. December
Fig. 12 shows a value of overall thermal gain for Optimization has been performed for a complete year.
different months of the year. It leads to conclusion that The input data considered for analysis has been obtained
the overall thermal gain is maximum (4.73 kW h) for the from IMD, Pune for a New Delhi, India at 11:00 AM for
month May and it minimum (2.23 kW h) for the month each month of the year (2009) as considered by Agrawal
December. and Tiwari (2011a). GA tools operate according to the algo-
Fig. 13 shows a values of overall exergy gain for rithm as shown in Fig. 3, it operates at single data at a time
different month of the year. It leads to conclusion that and give a set of optimized parameters for each month and
the overall exergy gain is maximum (1.02 kW h) for the takes next data after previous execution and it continues
month May and it minimum (0.61 kW h) for the month until the input data is over. The results obtained during
November. the optimization process are shown in Table 7 which indi-
cates distinct value of optimize parameter for each month.
It leads to conclusion that there is very slight variation
1.4 in one set of optimized parameters to another set for each
month. We have considered average values of parameters
1.2 for optimization of overall exergy efficiency as shown in
Overall exergy gain for New Delhi, kWh

Table 8. The value of overall exergy efficiency has been

1
evaluated at average value of optimized parameters and
it is found 14.862% as given in Table 8 which is similar
0.8
to the overall exergy efficiency 14.87% at single data.

0.6 5.2. Case-II: Improvement in exergy and thermal efficiency

when overall thermal efficiency is optimized
0.4
5.2.1. Analysis on single data at 11:00 AM
0.2 Overall thermal efficiency of single channel glazed pho-
tovoltaic thermal module has been optimized and observa-
0 tions are shown in Figs. 14–19. The input data at 11:00 AM
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month, January to December is shown in Table 2.
The plot of fitness function Vs generation and overall
Fig. 13. Variation in overall exergy gain with respect to month including thermal efficiency Vs generation have been observed shown
all weather conditions, while objective function is overall exergy efficiency.
in Fig. 14 whereby the maximum overall thermal efficiency

Table 6
Number of clear days fall in different weather conditions for New Delhi.
WC/Month January February March April May June July August September October November December
Set A 3 3 5 4 4 3 2 2 7 5 6 3
Set B 8 4 6 7 9 4 3 3 3 10 10 7
Set C 11 12 12 14 12 14 10 7 10 13 12 13
Set D 9 9 8 5 6 9 17 19 10 3 2 8

Table 7
Results obtained at 11:00 AM for each month when overall exergy efficiency is optimized.
S. No. Months d, m L, m Lin, m VF, m/s Lt, m Lg, m TFI, °C Overall exergy efficiency
1. January 0.0008 0.0291 0.1192 0.97 0.0001 0.0001 14.81 14.863
2. February 0.0008 0.0475 0.1180 1.41 0.0001 0.0003 15.00 14.861
3. March 0.0006 0.0289 0.1192 1.42 0.0001 0.0008 14.91 14.857
4. April 0.0009 0.0289 0.1200 0.85 0.0001 0.0002 14.98 14.863
5. May 0.0005 0.0228 0.1160 1.24 0.0001 0.0004 14.96 14.859
6. June 0.0007 0.0278 0.1200 0.90 0.0001 0.0006 14.94 14.860
7. July 0.0008 0.0190 0.1175 0.54 0.0001 0.0007 14.89 14.860
8. August 0.0007 0.0420 0.1193 1.43 0.0001 0.0001 14.94 14.862
9. September 0.0008 0.0260 0.1186 0.70 0.0001 0.0001 14.45 14.861
10. October 0.0008 0.0356 0.1161 1.21 0.0001 0.0006 14.94 14.855
11. November 0.0008 0.0266 0.1125 0.76 0.0002 0.0001 14.96 14.853
12. December 0.0008 0.0395 0.1199 1.35 0.0001 0.0005 14.99 14.861
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166 163

Table 8
Average parameters obtained at 11:00 AM for each month when overall exergy efficiency is optimized.
S. No. Months d, m L, m Lin, m VF, m/s Lt, m Lg, m TFI, °C Overall exergy efficiency
1. January 0.0008 0.0311 0.1180 0.91 0.0001 0.0004 14.89 14.862

Fig. 14. (a) Variation in fitness value with respect to generation, while objective function is overall thermal efficiency. (b) Variation in overall thermal
efficiency with respect to generation, while objective function is overall thermal efficiency.

of SCPVT module is found to be 56.54%. It is clear that the Output observed at 11:00 AM:
value of overall thermal efficiency has been optimized by The maximum overall thermal efficiency of SCPVT
genetic algorithm within 1000 generations. module is 56.54% which is obtained at optimized parame-
The numeric values of optimized parameters are given in ters. The optimized parameters are given in Table 9. The
Tables 3 and 9 respectively when overall exergy efficiency convergence curve (i.e. overall thermal efficiency Vs gener-
(fitness value) and overall thermal efficiency (fitness value) ation curve) is shown in Fig. 14.
is optimized. The value of input parameters are given in The results of analysis done at 11:00 AM are shown in
Tables 2 and 5. Table 10.

18
100

95
16

90
Overall thermal efficiency, %

Ambient temperature, oC

14
85

80
12

75

70 10

65
8
60

55 6
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time, h Time, h

Fig. 15. Variation in overall thermal efficiency with respect to time (08:00 Fig. 16. Variation in ambient temperature with respect to time (08:00 AM
AM to 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall thermal efficiency. to 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall thermal efficiency.
164 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166

60 15.8

55 15.6

15.4
50

15.2
Thermal efficiency, %

45

Exergy efficiency, %
15
40
14.8
35
14.6
30
14.4

25 14.2

20 14

15 13.8
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time, h Time, h

Fig. 17. Variation in thermal efficiency with respect to time (08:00 AM to Fig. 19. Variation in exergy efficiency with respect to time (08:00 AM to
05:00 PM), while objective function is overall thermal efficiency. 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall thermal efficiency.

15.5 Table 9
Optimized parameters when overall thermal efficiency is optimized.
Parameter Optimized value
15
Thickness of channel (d) 0.00089 m
Length of channel (L) 0.0100 m
Overall exergy efficiency, %

Thickness of back insulation (Lin) 0.0.0919 m

14.5
Velocity of flowing fluid (VF) 1.4990 m/s
Thickness of tedlar (Lt) 0.0001 m
Thickness of top glass cover (Lg) 0.00085 m
14 Temperature of fluid at inlet (TFI) 5.0089 °C

13.5 Table 10
Results obtained at 11:00 AM when overall thermal efficiency is
optimized.
13
S. No. Parameters Values (%)
1. Overall exergy efficiency 14.18
12.5 2. Thermal efficiency 19.48
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 3. Exergy efficiency 14.08
Time, h 4. Overall thermal efficiency 56.54

Fig. 18. Variation in overall exergy efficiency with respect to time (08:00
AM to 05:00 PM), while objective function is overall thermal efficiency.
5.2.2. Analysis for a complete day from 08:00 AM to 05:00
PM
Overall thermal efficiency is calculated for a complete
day from 08:00 AM to 05:00 PM at optimized parameters.
The optimized parameters are given in Table 9. The input
data for complete day is shown in Table 5.
Fig. 15 and 16 shows variation in overall thermal effi-
ciency and ambient temperature with respect to time
respectively and it has been observed that the overall ther-
mal efficiency depends on the ambient temperature. When
ambient temperature is maximum then the overall thermal
efficiency is maximum at 5:00 PM while the overall thermal
efficiency is minimum at 12:00 Noon when the ambient
temperature is minimum.
From Fig. 17 it has been observed that the trend of ther-
mal efficiency is similar with the trend of overall thermal
efficiency. This leads us to conclude that the effect of exergy
efficiency on overall thermal efficiency is less, while overall
thermal efficiency has been optimized.
Fig. 18 shows that overall exergy efficiency is regularly
decreasing during day time without much influence on
overall thermal efficiency. Similarly, from Fig. 19 it is
observed that the variation in exergy efficiency is not simi-
lar to the variation of overall exergy efficiency as was the
case for thermal efficiency.
There is 13.14% improvement in overall thermal effi-
ciency while overall thermal efficiency has been optimized.
These optimized parameters have been obtained with help
of GA tool. Now this is challenge to industry how can they
manufactured such proposed hybrid PVT system to get
 S. Singh et al. / Solar Energy 117 (2015) 153–166
better electrical efficiency and the same time we are able to
get thermal energy which can be useful:
i. To integrate to building to heat.
ii. For PVT dryer to dry medicinal plant etc.
6. Conclusions
 While overall exergy and overall thermal efficiencies
have been optimized, separately two distinct values
of optimization parameters have been obtained as
indicated in Tables 3 and 9.
 On the basis of analysis of parameters it is found
that the three parameters; velocity of flowing fluid,
temperature of inlet fluid and thickness of top glass
cover cause radical change in efficiency. This leads
us to the conclusion that for optimization of the
overall thermal efficiency these three design parame-
ters have dominating influence while other parame-
ters cause negligible change in efficiency.
 Changes in efficiency to the extent of 13.14%
improvement are observed in overall thermal effi-
ciency in the course of this optimization study of
overall thermal efficiency.
 Changes in efficiency to the extent of 4.6% improve-
ment are observed in overall exergy efficiency in the
course of this optimization study of overall exergy
efficiency.
 Observations from Figs. 9–19 above lead to the con-
clusion that the cell temperature is more dominating
to the overall exergy efficiency while ambient tem-
perature is more dominant for the overall thermal
efficiency.
 Observation from Figs. 12 and 13 above lead to the
conclusion that the overall annual thermal gain and
overall annual exergy gain is 40.75 kW h and
9.81 kW h respectively.
Glossary
Some terms related to Genetic Algorithm are as follows:
I. Chromosome: In Genetic Algorithm, a chromosome is
a set of parameters which define a proposed solution
to the problem that the genetic algorithm is trying to
solve. The chromosome is often represented as a sim-
ple string. Sometimes it is also called as genotype.
II. Population: A population is a summation of all the
chromosomes of the same group or species. In a
genetic algorithm, a population of candidate solu-
tions (called individuals, creatures, or phenotypes)
to an optimization problem is evolved toward better
solutions. Each candidate solution has a set of prop-
erties (its chromosomes or genotype) which can be
mutated and altered; traditionally, solutions are rep-
resented in binary as strings of 0 s and 1 s, but other
encodings are also possible.
165
III. Generation: The evolution usually starts from a pop-
ulation of randomly generated individuals, and is an
iterative process, with the population in each itera-
tion called a generation. In each generation, the fit-
ness of every individual in the population is
evaluated; the fitness is usually the value of the objec-
tive function in the optimization problem being
solved. The more fit individuals are stochastically
selected from the current population, and each indi-
vidual’s genome is modified (recombined and possi-
bly randomly mutated) to form a new generation.
The new generation of candidate solutions is then
used in the next iteration of the algorithm.
Commonly, the algorithm terminates when either a
maximum number of generations has been produced,
or a satisfactory fitness level has been reached for the
population.
IV. Fitness function: Fitness function is basically a objec-
tive function that is used to summarize, as a single fig-
ure of merit, how close a given design solution is to
achieving the set aims.
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to the Department of Science
and Technology, Government of India and the Indo-US
Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) for providing
the necessary help to give support to write a manuscript.
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