Thermal and Electrical Performance of PV Module and Solar PV/T for Water Collector

The aim of this paper is to compare the electric power output of the photovoltaic Module (PV) and photovoltaic-thermal water collector (PV/T). The electrical efficiency of photovoltaic Modules is greatly reduced by increasing their surface temperature. The hybrid photovoltaic-thermal collector consists of a PV Module with a thermal collector attached behind it. The circulating fluid in the collector removes heat from the module and increases its electrical efficiency. In the first part of this paper, a theoretical analysis of a liquid PV/T collector is made based on thermal modeling using the first law of thermodynamics. An unglazed hybrid photovoltaic-thermal collector with serpentine tubes has been designed and manufactured to validate the theoretical results. Then the collector has been tested for three days and results have been compared with a sample photovoltaic module. The theoretical calculations were performed using Matlab software and its results showed good agreement with experimental results. Our finding shows a maximum increase of 6% in the electrical efficiency of PV/T in comparison to the PV module. At the same time, the water temperature has increased by 5°C.