A Novel Hybrid PV/T System for Sustainable Production of Distillate Water from the Cooling of the PV Module

Abstract

A large portion of incident solar radiation on photovoltaic (PV) panels is transformed into heat; thus, reducing photovoltaic panel power. The photovoltaic module’s efficiency depends primarily on the ambient temperature, the temperature of the module, the incoming intensity of the solar radiation, and the composition of the PV material. Depending on the type of solar cells used, PV panel efficiency typically drops by 0.5 for each degree rise in temperature. The cooling technique is also beneficial to maintain the cell at the operating temperature and should be such that, with a uniform distribution, it holds the average cell temperature to its minimum values. The supply of drinking water is increasingly declining with increasing population, growth, and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is appropriate to concentrate on available distilling water. Due to its low cost, energy, and ability requirements, solar still is one of the promising technologies available for water purification. The current work attempts numerically to suggest and analyze the production of distilled water, electric power, and heating water for domestic by utilizing a simple passive cooling technique for a new hybrid PV/T. The present work benefits from the unwilled heat of PV panel to obtain freshwater without the construction of solar still by putting a glass cover on the original frame of PV. The system’s performance is investigated from various aspects such as distilled water yield, production of electrical and thermal power instantaneously, and daily by considering three types of mass flow rate in inner wick and four types in the outer wick. Results show that the mass flow rate of inner wick does not significantly affect the temperature of PV and distilled water yield, but the mass flow rate in outer wick has affected distilling water. The production of water was maximum for the CPVWD module and is increased by about 65.73% more than that for the PVWD. The CPVWD module is found to display the highest electrical efficiency while the PVWD shows the lowest value. Good agreement between the present results and previous works was found.