Performance of air-based photovoltaic thermal collector with fully and partially covered photovoltaic module

Abstract The objective of the present study is to explore the performance of air-based photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) collector to generate both thermal and electrical energy. Outdoor tests are performed by varying the PV coverage areas (25 - 100%) and by using two different types of absorber (wavy and plain) under the climatic condition of North-East India. Mass flow rate of air is varied between 0.01-0.04 kgs-1. Results indicate that high overall energy performance has been achieved at a 25% PV coverage area while the high net electrical energy and overall exergy have been observed at a 100 % PV coverage area for both the PV/T collectors. Further, wavy absorber plate based PV/T collector provides upto 2.7 % lower PV panel temperature and 4.5% higher outlet air temperature as compared to traditional PV/T collector. Moreover, a partially covered PV/T collector with a wavy absorber plate has achieved marginally higher net electrical energy and 3.5 % overall exergy efficiency than that of the plain absorber plate. However, a partially covered PV/T collector with a wavy plate has achieved an 11.2% higher overall thermal efficiency than the partially covered PV/T collector with a plain plate.