Photovoltaic thermal solar water collector designed with a jet collision system

Abstract

A photovoltaic thermal (PVT) solar collector with water jet collision of water was designed, fabricated and evaluated in this study. An indoor testing system with solar simulator was developed as the test rig. The different solar radiation levels were changed from 500 to 1000 W/m2 in the indoor test. The mass flow rate of water changed from 0.033 to 0.16 kg/s at each solar radiation level. The thermal, PV and combined PVT efficiencies were subsequently determined. A high heat transfer coefficient was achieved between the PV panel and the water by using impinging jets of water. The maximum thermal, PV and PVT efficiencies of the PVT collector with jet collision were 72%, 11.35% and 81% at the solar radiation level of 1000 W/m2, respectively. On the other hand, a mathematical model of PVT solar water collector with jet collision is developed. The results from the mathematical model are consistent with the experimental result with accuracy of 95.8% and 99.6% for PV efficiency and thermal efficiency, respectively.