Experimental energy improvement of a special design heat exchanger-based hybrid solar collector for a photovoltaic module square surface.

Abstract

Solar cells convert a part of the solar irradiance into electrical energy, and the remaining produces heat, which can be converted as a thermal energy accumulated in the module. This conversion depends on the solar cells temperature. Since conversion efficiency is very low, 5-20%, this investigation proposes an optimal combination of a photovoltaic module with a specially designed heat exchanger in order to improve the conversion energy efficiency. So, an experimental prototype of a photovoltaic thermal collector, with a special heat exchanger design for a PV module square surface is built and tested outdoor. The system is constituted of a PV module with square surface and a heat exchanger with a copper tube, in a spiral form. In order to assess the effect of the exchanger design on hybrid system performance, a comparison with a traditional photovoltaic module is done. During the experimental tests, various parameters were measured, such as solar irradiance, ambient temperature, coolant inlet/outlet temperature and surface temperature of the device. Based on the obtained results, it has been found that the use of the new PVT decreases the PV cells temperature in the order of 20°C. A consequence of that shows that the electrical power increases, by 6 W; moreover, the electrical energy efficiency goes from 7.93 to 9.65%, while the thermal energy efficiency of the PVT reaches 74.3%. The overall energy efficiency for the same system achieved was 84 %. Therefore, the energy loss is minimized, reaching 16%.