Design, simulation and experimental investigation of a solar system based on PV panels and PVT collectors

This work presents numerical and experimental analyses aimed at evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) collectors. An experimental setup was purposely designed and constructed to compare the electrical performance of a PVT solar field with the one achieved by a PV solar field. The experimental analysis aims at evaluating the potential advantages of PVT vs. PV in terms of electric efficiency and thermal energy production. The installed experimental set-up includes four flat polycrystalline silicon PV panels and four flat unglazed polycrystalline silicon PVT collectors. The total electrical power and area of the solar field are 2 kWe and 13 m2, respectively. This study also analyzes the system from a numerical point of view, including a thermo-economic dynamic simulation model for the design and the assessment of energy performance and economic profitability of the solar systems consisting of glazed PVT and PV collectors. The experimental setup was modelled and partly simulated in TRNSYS environment. The numerical analysis shows that the PVT global efficiency is about 26%. Conversely, from the experimental point of view the average thermal efficiency of PVT collectors is about 13% and the electric efficiencies of both technologies are about coincident and equal to 15%.