An Investigation Into the Performance of a Double Pass Photovoltaic Thermal Solar Collector

Abstract

Abstract Combined photovoltaic thermal solar collectors provide an attractive alternative to solar energy systems that collect either thermal or electrical energy. In such systems, the photovoltaic cells are usually pasted directly over the absorber or in some cases at the inner glass cover. Hence, part of the solar radiation incident on the photovoltaic cells is converted directly to electricity and part of it is collected by the flowing air as thermal energy. Up to date, only a limited number of studies on the photovoltaic thermal solar collectors have been carried out. This paper presents the analytical studies of a double pass air photovoltaic thermal collector. The effects of various parameters such as flow rates, packing factor or the fraction of the absorber area covered by solar cells, the absorber length and the duct height on the efficiencies of the photovoltaic cells and thermal collectors as well as the combined efficiency have been analyzed.