Research on energy conversion performance for hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar collector

A model of the photothermic-photovoltaic coupled energy conversion processes for the hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) solar collector was developed. The performances of energy conversion in the PV/T collector were studied by using TRNSYS. The effects of structural and operating parameters on the energy conversion performance were analyzed. Detailed simulation experiments for panels structure impact on performance, quality of cooling water inlet flux impact on performance, the inlet fluid temperature impact on performance. The numerical results show that the decrease of the ratio of the tube distance to the tube diameter is favorable to improve the electrical and thermal conversion efficiency. The inlet temperature of the working fluid is a crucial factor, and the lower inlet temperature leads to the higher electrical and thermal conversion efficiency. In addition, the higher inlet mass flux helps to increase the electrical and thermal conversion efficiency, and as the inlet mass flux is 6.8 g/(s?m2), the corresponding thermal and electrical conversion efficiencies are 672% and 10.5%, respectively. To further increase the inlet mass flux has little effect on improving the electrical and thermal conversion efficiency.