Design and Performance Characteristics of a Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal Regeneration System under Indoor and Outdoor Solar Radiation Conditions of Thunder Bay, Ontario

Abstract

Numerous energy sources continuously emit large amounts of waste energy into the earth's atmosphere. Significant losses, nearly 85% of the incident light on a PV panel, are either reflected from the PV surface, accounting for up to 20%, or dissipated as heat. In this work, a novel lab-scale hybrid photovoltaic-thermal regeneration (HPVT-R) system is designed, constructed, and tested to restore some of the reflection losses in the PV system. The new HPVT-R system design permits the PV and thermal co-systems to perform autonomously while revitalizing some of the reflection losses by hybridization. Thorough testing of the HPVT-R system was performed under lab-scale indoor simulated light and outdoor solar radiation conditions in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The HPVT-R system regenerated approximately 14 % of the reflected light in these tests, transforming it into electrical power and heat. Under the solar-simulated lights, the indoor test setup regenerated around 17 mW of electric power from the reflected light accounting for slightly less than 1% of more electric power per unit PV surface area. However, the outdoor solar radiation tests rejuvenated nearly 137 mW of electric power, accounting for approximately 3% more electric power per unit PV surface area, with a conversion efficiency of nearly 7%. Regarding heat energy, the HPVT-R system regenerated approximately 34% more in indoor and outdoor performances entirely from the reflected light. This research investigates the performance aspects of the HPVT-R system operated under different working conditions.