Energy and Exergy Efficiency of Flat Plate PVT Collector With Forced Convection

Abstract

Abstract This article presented the detailed energy and exergy analysis performed on 4 different configurations of solar photovoltaic thermal collectors under Chennai climatic conditions. A comparative performance study of all the four different configurations was performed considering two mass flow rates of air as 0.00847 and 0.01130 kg/s. The parameters such as PV temperature, inlet and outlet air flow temperatures in the cooling channels, solar radiation, and ambient temperature were analyzed and studied in detail. It was found that the collector performance enhanced with increase in air velocity with further increase in heat transfer coefficient between the absorber surface and air. The experimental results obtained from the present work and the experimental performances of previously published results are found to be in good agreement. The electrical efficiency was from 9.8 to 12.9 % for 0.00847 kg/s and from 10.3 to 13.9 % for mass flow rate of air 0.0113 kg/s. The maximum thermal efficiency lies between 4.3 and 12.4 % for the mass flow rate of air 0.00847 kg/s and from 6.5 to 15.9 % for mass flow rate of air 0.01130 kg/s, respectively. Similarly, the maximum exergy efficiency ranges from 11.2 to 38.6 % for mass flow rate of air 0.00847 kg/s, and it varies between 18.4 and 49.4 % for mass flow rate of air 0.01130 kg/s.