Thermal Management of Hybrid Photovoltaic Systems

Photovoltaic cells can be quite sensitive to the change in temperature, as the entire system’s performance will be affected mainly by an increase in temperature. This is due to the degradation occurring in the solar panel when heat is absorbed, thus producing lesser electricity with the same amount of solar irradiance absorbed. Wind can provide additional cooling on the system; it is too unreliable to consider since wind can come unpredictably. For the design proposed, heat generated is carried away via the water channel underneath each collector’s glass panel. In order to utilize the removed heat, two subsystems are combined to the solar thermal collector. The primary subsystem uses heat to raise the temperature of the hot water storage tank. It can be further heated to the required temperature for the hot water used in the shower. The secondary subsystem consists of an absorption refrigeration system that will provide additional space cooling circulating the house. Based on the available data for maximum solar irradiance, the hot water storage tank can deliver up to 43.8 °C. Additional power of 2.28 kWh is required to raise the temperature to 50 °C. For space cooling, a coefficient of performance of about 2.2 is obtained at maximum solar irradiance. A breakeven point is also estimated to be approximately one year, even though the initial fixed cost for the system is way higher than the installation of conventional products.