Abstract
The focus on managing PV panel temperature has undergone a remarkable development in the last two decades. Specifically, in countries with moderate weather temperature and high insolation, the problem of keeping the PV cell temperature in an optimal range has been managed by use of PV/T collectors. In this work, a single pass PV/T collector using laminar air flow has been assessed. Two PV/T collector designs are utilised, one with and one without offset strip fins. COMSOL Multiphysics v5.3a has been used for the analysis of the thermal and electrical performances. Two assumptions were implemented in order to reduce the computational time from 95 hours to 7 hours, namely ignoring radiative effects between the fins and the wall channels, and representing thin layers as 2D boundaries, whilst ensuring a high level of conformity (4%),. Monocrystalline silicon PV cells were used with a power temperature coefficient of 0.41%. A validation against work in the literature was made, showing a good consistency. The objective of this work is to verify the performance of the air PV/T collector with offset strip fins compared to an unfinned air PV/T collector. The results reveal that the use of offset strip fins has a noticeable impact on both the electrical and thermal efficiencies of the system. In addition, the maximum combined efficiency (ηCo) for the finned PV/T system is 84.7% while the unfinned PV/T system is 51.2%.
Highlights
The capability of photovoltaic (PV) systems has been developed considerably in recent years to the point that some PVs can absorb more than 75% of the insolation energy and up to 18% of this being converted to electrical power [1]
The present study numerically examines the use of an offset strip fin design, the performance of which is evaluated by comparison with a bare solar collector design
Numerical investigations were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics v5.3a to assess the influence of the PV panel temperature on the monocrystalline PV
Summary
The capability of photovoltaic (PV) systems has been developed considerably in recent years to the point that some PVs can absorb more than 75% of the insolation energy and up to 18% of this being converted to electrical power [1]. The remainder of the absorbed energy is released as heat, causing the temperature of the PV cells to rise. Once the temperature increases above standard conditions (25°C and 1000 W m-2), the cell efficiency falls by approximately 0.4–0.65% per degree Celsius [1]. This reduction is defined by the temperature coefficient of the PV cell. It is important to implement a means of controlling the temperature rise (i.e. cooling) to keep the panel operating at optimal conditions. PV/T technology should allow the PV cell to operate in a temperature range optimised for electrical efficiency, as well as producing useable heat.
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