PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC THERMAL HYBRID SYSTEM

Abstract

Solar energy is a safe alternative that can replace current fossil fuels, like coal and gas for generation of electricity that produce air, water, and land pollution. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), noted that electricity generation from fossil fuels causes pollution of air leading to acid rain, damaged forest areas, and affected agricultural production. Similarly, nuclear power also pollutes water and land, but the use of solar energy can replace these conventional fossil fuels. Solar energy can be converted directly into electrical energy with the help of P-V generator, and this electrical energy is a high grade energy which can be converted into any other form of energy as per the requirement. To utilize the solar energy, there is a need of more efficient system, because solar energy is a dilute form of energy. Hybrid Solar Photo voltaic thermal system (HPVT) can be used to achieve better efficiency with more energy output. HPVT system produces electricity and also uses the thermal energy of a heated solar panel, which is going to be waste in the form of conduction and convection losses. Utilization of thermal energy increases the overall efficiency of system by increasing the net output of system as well as increase the efficiency of PV generator by reducing its temperature. Under the present dissertation work different types of HPVT systems are analyzed for various modified designs. To modify the design for better performance, several parameters are selected to increase the heat transfer rate in HPVT system. This report also presents the CFD analysis of these modified systems, and comparison among these systems. During the performance analysis of HPVT system, it is found that the maximum reduction in panel temperature is 9.2 ℃, in case of cubical shaped protrusions, which further increase the electrical (PV) efficiency by an amount of 4.8 %. It is also observed that HPVT systems with discontinuous roughness (cubical and spherical shaped protrusions, having a system efficiency of 25.70% and 24.77% respectively) are more efficient than the systems having continuous ribs (longitudinal, transverse and inclined ribs which have an efficiency of 20.94 %, 21.58 % and 23.7% respectively) at a maximum mass flow rate of 0.069 kg/s.