A Comparative Study on Bifacial Photovoltaic/Thermal (Bpv/T) Modules with Various Cooling Methods

Abstract

The bifacial photovoltaic/thermal (bPV/T) module is an emerging concept that can provide electricity and heat simultaneously taking advantage of both front and rear sides of the panel, therefore exhibiting a better performance compared to a conventional photovoltaic module or photovoltaic thermal module. In this study, four configurations of the bPV/T module with different cooling methods have been proposed, i.e., cooling performed at either the upper or the lower surface, in parallel (applied to both upper and lower surfaces having similar start/end points), and swinging air back and forth (by guiding the air over the upper and lower surfaces, respectively). The computational fluid dynamic software is used to numerically investigate the performance of the studied configurations, and a novel radiation model is used to study bPV/T modules in steady-state and transient conditions. This study demonstrates that Configuration (c) performs best if thermal energy/exergy is more important while Configuration (b) is a better option in terms of electrical output. The transient simulation shows that Configuration (b) can generate more power on sunny (134 W/m2) and cloudy (58 W/m2) days, while seasonal analysis shows that energy and exergy output of Configuration (c) can only reach 500 W/m2 and 110 W/m2 respectively in the summer.