Numerical study of solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) hybrid collector using nanofluids

The commonly used methods to harness solar energy are solar thermal and solar photovoltaic (PV). A new category photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) hybrid combines these two technologies, and achieves higher combined efficiency. The challenge is to keep the operating temperature of the PV low and at the same time not compromise on the temperature of the thermal cycle. Various designs of PV/T hybrids (both flat plate and concentrated) have already been proposed which utilize air or water to remove the heat from PV cells in order to enhance the overall efficiency of PV/T hybrid collector. Recent papers have showed that nanofluids can be used as an optical filter to filter the required wavelength range (equivalent to the band gap of the PV cell) from solar spectra. Thus, the heating of PV cells can be significantly reduced and higher overall efficiencies can be achieved using selective absorption by nanofluids. In this study, a new design of a PV/T hybrid collector was proposed and two nanofluid filters that can be used with Silicon (Si) PV cells were identified and corresponding thermal and overall efficiencies of PV/T hybrid collector were calculated.