a-Si hybrid solar collector

This report presents the performance of a hybrid solar collector that uses a-Si solar cells as additional absorber. This is the first development of a-Si hybrid solar collector in Thailand by ENTEC (ENergy TEchnology Center). The scope of present work are to study the hybrid solar collector system by using a-Si (Amorphous Silicon) instead of the black chrome-coated absorber, which is expensive, and to study the a-Si hybrid solar collector that is good for tropical climate. The test run in this study are focused on the comparison of thermal efficiency in difference of PV module top-surface, that are the PV module used Tefzel as top-surface and PV module used white glass (low iron) as top-surface, while both of cell configuration are same. The experimental results show that the thermal efficiency of PV module with white glass top-surface is maximum about 80% higher than that of PV module with Tefzel top-surface. New correlation based on the data generated during this work for predicting the thermal efficiencies are proposed for practical application.