Mathematical modeling and experimental validation of bifacial photovoltaic–thermal system with mirror reflector

Abstract

This research examines the feasibility of employing bifacial photovoltaic (bPV) panels on PVT solar collectors to improve electrical efficiency. Bifacial PVT (bPVT) collector with a V-groove mirror reflector is developed in this paper. The mathematical model is developed based on energy balance equations by using the inverse matrix method. The experimental findings are compared with the theoretical results to verify the mathematical model. The experiments on a bPVT collector are conducted at different mass flow rates and solar radiation intensities in the range of 0.032–0.092 kgs−1 and 508–820 Wm−2, respectively. The findings show that the temperature differential and bPV panel temperature decrease as the mass flow rate increases. Consequently, this adds to the increased electric and thermal energy of a bPVT collector. The theoretical findings report an overall performance of 58.2% at mass flow rate of 0.092 kgs−1 and solar radiation of 820 Wm−2. According to the experimental analysis, the highest energy efficiency obtained is 59.24% at the same parameter. In conclusion, this research contributes to the development of PVT collector system technology where the theoretical and experimental studies have proven the feasibility to integrate the bifacial PV and reflector on PVT solar collectors.