Parallel experimental study of a novel super-thin thermal absorber based photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system against conventional photovoltaic (PV) system

Xu, Peng; Zhang, Xingxing; Shen, Jingchun; Zhao, Xudong; He, Wei; Li, Deying

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) semiconductor degrades in performance due to temperature rise. A super thin-conductive thermal absorber is therefore developed to regulate the PV working temperature by retrofitting the existing PV panel into the photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) panel. This article presented the parallel comparative investigation of the two different systems through both laboratory and field experiments. The laboratory evaluation consisted of one PV panel and one PV/T panel respectively while the overall field system involved 15 stand-alone PV panels and 15 retrofitted PV/T panels. The laboratory testing results demonstrated the PV/T panel could achieve the electrical efficiency of about 16.8% (relatively 5% improvement comparing with the stand-alone PV panel), and yield an extra amount of heat with thermal efficiency of nearly 65%. The field testing results indicated that the hybrid PV/T panel could enhance the electrical return of PV panels by nearly 3.5%, and increase the overall energy output by nearly 324.3%. Further opportunities and challenges were then discussed from aspects of different PV/T stakeholders to accelerate the development. It is expected that such technology could become a significant solution to yield more electricity, offset heating load freely and reduce carbon footprint in contemporary energy environment.

Citation

Xu, P., Zhang, X., Shen, J., Zhao, X., He, W., & Li, D. (2015). Parallel experimental study of a novel super-thin thermal absorber based photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system against conventional photovoltaic (PV) system. Energy Reports, 1, 30-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2014.11.002

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 30, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Jan 21, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Deposit Date: May 12, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: May 12, 2016
• Journal: Energy reports
• Print ISSN: 2352-4847
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Pages: 30-35
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2014.11.002
• Keywords: Photovoltaic superconductor
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/438029
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352484714000043
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Parallel experimental study of a novel super-thin thermal absorber based photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system against conventional photovoltaic (PV) system; Journal Title: Energy Reports; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2014.11.002; Content Type: article; Copyright: Crown copyright © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
• Contract Date: May 12, 2016