Performance Study of a Combined Low-concentration Bifacial Photovoltaic/thermal System with Glass Channels

Abstract The combination of photovoltaic and photothermal, often abbreviated as PV/T, is a promising approach that has been increasingly studied to improve solar energy conversion efficiencies. In this paper, a low-concentration bifacial PV/T system (LC-BiPV/T) which uses double-axis tracking module and direct-contact glass-channel was built. The electric and thermal performances of this system are studied experimentally. When the series and parallel waterflow configuration is compared, the result shows that the average electric efficiency of the direct contact glass-channel LC-BiPV/T system is 13% and the average thermal efficiency is 48.13% when running at series configuration. When the average electric efficiency is 14.90% and the average thermal efficiency is 58.69% at parallel configuration. In general, the thermal and electric performance of this system are excellent, and the series configuration can further improve both efficiencies of the system. This experimental result can aid on the improvement of future energy-using.