Experimental evaluation of thermal efficiency, electrical efficiency, and power production of low-concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system with micro-jet channel

Abstract

The efficient behavior of a low-concentrating photovoltaic-thermal system with a micro-jet channel (LCPV/T-JET) and booster mirror reflector is experimentally evaluated here. Micro-jets promote the thermal management of PV solar cells by implementing jet water as active cooling, which is still in the early stages of development. The booster mirror reflector concentrates solar irradiance into solar cells and improves the thermal, electrical, and combined efficiencies of the LCPV/T-JET system. The LCPV/T-JET system was tested under ambient weather conditions in the city of Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, and all data was recorded between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Parametric studies were conducted to compare the performance of the LCPV/T-JET system to that of a conventional PV module. It is found that the short-circuit current of a standard PV module could be increased by 28% and 11.7%, with and without the use of jet water and booster mirror reflectors, respectively. Moreover, the power supplied by the PV component increases to 31% and 16%, respectively, with and without jet water and a booster mirror reflector. The characteristic curves for current–voltage and power–voltage curves also confirmed the superior thermoelectric properties of the LCPV/T-JET system. The measurements reveal a drop in the electrical efficiency of solar cells from 14.5% to 12.25% as the temperature of the cells increases from 32.5 °C to 66.5 °C between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Meanwhile, the thermal and overall efficiencies declined from 84% to 81.5% and 96% to 93%, respectively.