Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T) Air and Water Based Solar Collectors Suitable for

Building Integrated Applications

Adnan Ibrahim, Goh Li Jin, Roonak Daghigh, Mohd Huzmin Mohamed Salleh, Mohd Yusof
Othman, Mohd Hafidz Ruslan, Sohif Mat and Kamaruzzaman Sopian
Solar Energy Research Institute
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: Problem statement: Experiments have been conducted to investigate the effect of mass
flow rates on the electrical, thermal and combined of photovoltaic thermal efficiencies of the
hybrid collectors. Approach: Two photovoltaic thermal solar collectors have been designed and
fabricated. The first collector, known as Spiral flow absorber collector, designed to generate hot
water and electricity. The second collector, known as Single pass rectangular tunnel absorber
collector designed to generate hot air and electricity. Both absorber collectors are fixed underneath
the flat plate single glazing sheet of polycrystalline silicon PV module. Water is used as a heat
transfer medium in Spiral flow absorber collector and air for the Single pass rectangular tunnel
absorber collector respectively. Results: The experiment results shows that the Single flow
absorber collector generates combined PV/T efficiency of 64%, electrical efficiency of 11% and
power maximum achieved at 25.35W. Moreover, Single pass rectangular tunnel absorber collector
generates combined PV/T efficiency of 55%, electrical efficiency of 10% and maximum power of
22.45W. Conclusion/Recommendation: The best mass flow rate achieved for Spiral flow
absorber collector is 0.011 kg/s at surface temperature of 55% and 0.0754kg/s at surface
temperature of 39ºC for Single pass rectangular collector absorber. It is recommended for PV/T
system to further improve its efficiency by optimizing the contact surfaces between the solar panel
(photovoltaic module) and the tubes underneath and also recommended to use other type of
photovoltaic cell such as amorphous silicon cell that posses the black mat surfaces property that
will improve it thermal absorption.

Keywords: Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T), thermal and electrical efficiency, absorber collectors

INTRODUCTION purposes for water and space, solar drying and

building integrated skins (façades). In heating,
Energy is required in almost every aspect of photovoltaic module is combined with solar
human activities and development of any nation in thermal absorber collector to produce a hybrid
this world. Increasing fossil fuel price, energy system. It is known fact that the efficiency
security and climate change have important conversion of solar energy to electrical energy
bearings on sustainable development of any nation. using photovoltaic cells is limited by several
The increase in fossil fuel prices has created an factors. Firstly, conversion efficiency falls as the
inflationary pressure in the economic field which temperature of the photovoltaic cells rise and
influenced the increase in interest rates and secondly, the photovoltaic cells are only responsive
investments[1]. One of the drastic approaches taken to a portion of solar spectrum, which is equivalent
by researchers all over the world is to introduce a or higher than the band gaps of the solar radiation.
backup or replacement source of energy. One of the This is one of the main reason that make the usage
promising energy is the renewable energy of photovoltaic in tropical countries is less choice
[2]
technologies – in this case, solar energy, which .
commonly known as photovoltaic technology (PV). Photovoltaic thermal technology (PV/T) has
The photovoltaic technology has its own been developed since 70s. Basically the solar
advantages comparing to other sources, such as, energy technology can be broadly classified into
operate in noiseless mode, totally clean and green two systems; photovoltaic energy system and
energy, highly credibility system with life span thermal energy system. The term PV/T refers to
expectation between 20 to 30 years and very low solar thermal collectors that use PV cells as an
maintenance system. There are many applications integral part of the absorber plate. The system
of photovoltaic technology, such as, for heating generates both thermal and electrical energy

Corresponding Author: Adnan Ibrahim, Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603 89214596 Fax: +603 89214593
simultaneously. The first air hybrid collector was which are able to convert solar energy
employed by the University of Delaware. The simultaneously into electrical energy and thermal
hybrid collector which was integrated by Böer et energy in such a way that the two processes are
al.,[3] integrate the solar collector to building roof, compatible and integrated.
known as “Solar One” house. Since the first hybrid
collector being studied, variety of studies about the THE COLLECTORS CONFIGURATION
PV/T system has been carried out throughout the
world. The studied mostly focusing on the air and Spiral flow absorber collector: In this
water based as the medium to the heat transfer [4]; [5]; experiment, a specially made Spiral flow absorber
[6]; [7] and [8]
. collector and Single pass rectangular tunnel
Amongst the PV/T solar collectors that being absorber collector have been designed and
studied, the most popular is the air type solar evaluated. The Spiral flow, as shown in Figure 1,
collector with photovoltaic module, even though it is made of rectangular hollow tubes of stainless
is most popular, this type of collector has less in steel material with dimension of 12.7mm x
usage compared to the water collectors [9]. The 12.7mm.
PV/T solar collector system has been designed to
generate the electricity and at the same time to
produce hot air and hot water. The hot air and hot
water gained can be used for other purposes in low
heat temperature processes. Wolf [10] analyzed the
performance of the combination of heating and
photovoltaic power systems for residences using
Hottel-Whillier model[11], he analyzed the Fig. 1: The design of Spiral flow absorber collector
combination of photovoltaic and thermal flat plate
collectors with the traditional hot water system and The tube was connected using a welding method.
PV module. He concluded that the system was The absorber collector should have a single
technically feasible and cost effective. Zondag et unilateral channel for the water to flow in it with
al. [12] reviewed various concepts of combined PV- the size of 815mm x 628mm before it is assembled
thermal collector technologies by introducing and underneath the standard PV module with the size of
evaluating nine different designs, ranging from the 1 m height and 0.65 m length. As shown in Figure
complicated to the simpler one, in order to 2, the photovoltaic module has been represented as
investigate the maximum yield. They concluded a flat plate single glazing sheet of polycrystalline
that the design of the channel below the transparent silicon with single glazing sheet. The Spiral flow
PV, with PV-on-sheet and tubes design gives the absorber collector is designed in the form of
best efficiency overall. Bergene et al.,[13] perform continuous coil or tube configured. The spiral coil
theoretical examination of a flat plate solar has at least one inlet and outlet to allow fluid to
collector model that integrated with solar cells. enter and to exit from coil respectively.
They concluded that, the system can produced
approximately about 60-80% efficiency. Huang et The
al.,[14] have developed PV/T system using a
polycrystalline solar PV panel, adopted to be
combined with a collector plate. They suggested
that the collector plate must be directly attached to
the PV panel using the thermal grease, for better
contact. He et al.,[15] recently studied the hybrid
PV/T system which used natural convection to Fig. 2: The perspective view of Spiral flow
circulate the water, adopting a flat-box absorber absorber collector
design. The study shows increasing of daily thermal inlet and the outlet of the spiral coil are arranged
efficiency up to 40%. further away to the entre point of the spiral. This
The aim of this paper is to study the influence will allow the water to flow in reversed direction
of various mass flow rates to the efficiency of the and covered the entire photovoltaic module. Water
collectors. This work provides experimental results with lower temperature enters the coil and travel
and could be considered useful to estimate the through the spiral coil into the centre point and
accuracy of various mass flow rates for both travel away from the centre point leaving the coil as
collectors. Results from the results and observation hot water. The hot water can be consumed or stored
of the experiment, enable us to justify the collectors
for later use. In this way solar radiation energy can 0.004 to 0.02 kg/s. For Single pass rectangular
be fully utilized. tunnel absorber collector, the mass flow rates are
Single pass rectangular tunnel absorber set ranging from 0.0110 to 0.0754 kg/s. The tests
collector: As shown in Figure 3, Single pass are carried out by setting the solar radiation to the
rectangular tunnel absorber collector is fabricated designated power and once it reaches steady state
from 39 units of aluminium hollow rectangular condition, the medium (water and air) are flowed
tubes, with the size of 1.2cm X 2.5cm X 120 cm. through the collector absorbers. The parameters
The tubes are then arranged in parallel, stacking measured are: current, I (A), voltage, (V), short
side by side, to form a tunnel configuration. circuit current, Isc (A), open circuit voltage, Voc (V)
and temperature, T (oC) are measured every 90
minutes. Data collected are used to calculate the
electrical efficiency and thermal efficiency for both
collectors.

Fig. 3: The design of Single pass rectangular

tunnel absorber
Fig. 4: Blower and photovoltaic thermal collector
ducting connection
The tunnel design comprised of 1m height and
0.65m length and has been inserted underneath the
standard PV module. The tunnel rectangular tubes
have been placed underneath the PV module act as
heat conductor. Once it is place underneath the PV
module, an insulator is used to cover the tunnel to Fig. 5: The solar panel under the halogen lamps
prevent heat loss to surrounding. Referring to simulator
Figure 4, ducting has been designed and fabricated
and connected to blower. A heater made of 2 RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS
halogen lamps was place inside the ducting to
The performance of collectors can be depicted
by the combination of efficiency expression [15]. It
comprised of the thermal efficiency ηth and the
electrical efficiencyη e . The total efficiencies, which
η
is known as combined PV/T efficiency o is used
stabilize the air temperature that going into the to evaluate the overall performance of the system:
collector. η o=ηthermal + ηelectrical
η
The thermal performance th of the PV/T unit is
THE EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
Photovo evaluated for its thermal and photovoltaic
In this experiment, a standard solar panel performance, as such, the derivation of the
model, which rating at 80W power under 800W/m 2 efficiency parameters based on the Hottel H. C,
radiation, is used. As Insul
solar Blow seen Hot
in Figureair
5, the and A Whillier equations[11] were used. For both
Ducti
solar PV/T collectors are tested under 23 simulator absorber collectors efficiency, the fluid and air
halogen lamps. The experiment was conducted in mass flow rates can be calculating using the
control environment (constant room temperature of equation below:
.
25oC) and was tested under 5 different mass flow m = ρAVav
rates. Both collectors are tested with and without .
the absorbers to compare the differences. Solar
Where m is the mass flow rate, ρ is the density of
radiation from experiment lamps are set
the fluid or air drain input area; Vav is the fluid or
approximately at 800 W/m2. Mass flow rates for
air velocity, determined using voltage regulator and
Single flow absorber collector are set ranging from
blower in the case of air. I sc and Voc can be achieved
by connecting directly to the multimeter, which 60 80
later connected directly to the solar panel. I m and 70
50

Thermal Efficiency, ƞt(%)

Surface Temperature ºC
Vm. Where Im and Vm are from power maximum, 60
Pm. Power, P is the result of current, I (V). The 40
50
thermal efficiency of the collector can be expressed 30 40
by [16]:
. 30
20
m C p ΔT Thermal Efficiency 20
η th = x 100 % 10 Surface Temperature 10
A p GT
. 0 0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
Where m is mass flow rate (kg/s), Cp = specific
heat of the collector cooling medium (Jkg-1oC-1), Δ Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s)
= differences between fluid or air outlet Fig. 6(b): Thermal efficiency and surface
temperature (K), (To) and fluid or air inlet temperature versus mass flow rate for Spiral flow
temperature (K) (Ti), Ap = area covered by absorber absorber collector
collector, GT = solar radiation at NOCT (irradiation
level 800 W/m2, wind velocity 1 m/s, ambient Figure 7a and 7b shows the electrical and
temperature at 26 ºC taken every 90 minutes). thermal efficiency versus the surface temperature
and mass flow rate for the Single pass rectangular
Performance of electrical efficiency, η el is shown as tunnel absorber collector. The result is similar to
below: the Spiral flow absorber collector. For Single pass
Im V m rectangular tunnel absorber collector, at a surface
x 100 % η el= temperature of 39ºC and mass flow rate of
A pGT
0.0754kg/s, generates combined PV/T efficiency of
Where, Im is the maximum current (A) and V m is 55%, with electrical efficiency of 10%.
maximum voltage (V).
10.15 70
The experiment results in Figures 6(a) and 6(b) 10.1
Electircal Efficiency, ƞe (%)

60

Surface Temperature ºC
shows the electrical and thermal efficiency versus 10.05
the surface temperature and mass flow rate for 50
10
Spiral flow absorber collector. The result shows 9.95 40
that when mass flow rate increases, the surface 9.9 30
9.85 Electrical Ef-
temperature decrease and at the same time the ficiency 20
9.8
efficiencies for electrical and thermal increase. In Surface 10
9.75 Temperature
this experiment, the data shows that at the surface 9.7 0
temperature of 55ºC and mass flow rate of 0.011 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
kg/s, the absorber collector generates combined Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s)
PV/T efficiency of 64%, with electrical efficiency
of 11%. Fig. 7(a): Electrical efficiency and surface
temperature versus mass flow rate for Single pass
11.6 80 rectangular tunnel absorber collector
11.4 70
Electircal Efficiency, ƞe (%)

Surface Temperature ºC

11.2 60 50 70
45
Thermal Efficiency, ƞt (%)

60
Surface Temperature ºC

11 50 40
10.8 40 35 50
Electrical Ef- 30
10.6 30 40
ficiency 25
10.4 20 20 30
Surface Temper-
ature 15 20
10.2 10
10 Thermal Efficiency
10 0 5 10
Surface Temperature
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0 0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08
Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s) Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s)
Fig. 6(a): Electrical efficiency and surface
Fig. 7(b): Thermal efficiency and surface
temperature versus mass flow rate for Spiral flow
temperature versus mass flow rate for Single pass
absorber collector
rectangular absorber collector
 Figure 8(a) and (b) show the dependence of absorber, the error analysis for mass flow rate at
electrical, thermal and combined PV/T efficiency 0.075kg/s was ±0.0052kg/s, error analysis for
on the mass flow rate of the Spiral flow and Single electrical efficiency was 10% ±4.04% and thermal
pass rectangular tunnel absorber collector efficiency was 45% ±0.28%. Error analysis for
respectively. The efficiencies approach steady state thermal efficiency was lower then electrical
values as the mass flow rate increases. In this efficiency and its because the mass flow rate used
experiment, it is seen that for Single pass in thermal calculation had smaller error compare to
rectangular collector absorber, the steady state current and voltage used in electrical.
efficiency is reached at a threshold mass flow rate
of 0.0754kg/s while for Spiral flow absorber The behaviour of the I-V curve for the two
collector; the threshold mass flow rate is 0.011 kg/s collectors is shown in Figure 9 along with the bare
plate solar panel for comparison purposes. This can
60
be explained based on the experimental
observations given in Figure 6(a), (b) and 7(a), (b).
50
The open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current
Total Efficiency, ƞtotal (%)

(Isc) of the Spiral flow absorber collector are the

40
highest because of the low surface temperature of
30
the panel due to the medium used. For Single pass
electical rectangular tunnel, the short circuit current (Isc) is
thermal less than the one in Spiral flow absorber collector
20
combined PV/T but the open circuit voltage (Voc) is about the same.
10 This is due to the slightly lower temperature of
the medium used giving rise to a lower surface
0 temperature of the panel. From the observation, the
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 result shows that the Spiral flow design collector
Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s) has the power maximum of 25.35W, and the Single
pass rectangular tunnel absorber design with tunnel
Fig. 8(a): Combined PV/T efficiency versus have the maximum power of 22.45W. Both
various mass flow rates for Single pass rectangular collectors are being compared to a bare plate solar
tunnel absorber collector panel that giving a power maximum of only
20.66W.
70

60 2.50
Total Efficiency, ƞtotal (%)

50
2.00
40
Current, I (A)

1.50
30 electrical
Bare plate solar
thermal
1.00 panel
20 combined PV/T Single Pass Rec
Tunnel
10 0.50 Spiral Flow
Logarithmic (Spiral
0 Flow)
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.00
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00
Mass Flow Rate, m (kg/s) V oltage(V)

Fig. 8(b): Combined PV/T efficiency versus Fig. 9: I-V curve for Bare plate solar panel, Single
various mass flow rates for Spiral flow absorber pass rectangular tunnel and Spiral flow absorber
collector collector.

For Spiral flow absorber collector, the error CONCLUSIONS

analysis for mass flow rate at 0.011kg/s was
±0.004kg/s, error analysis for electrical efficiency The photovoltaic solar collector comprises of a
was 11% ±3.36% and thermal efficiency was 52% combined photovoltaic module (PV) and an
±0.10%. For Single pass rectangular collector absorber collector for building integrated
photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) application, have been 6. Tripanagnostopoulos, Y. Nousia, Th, Souliotis,
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the photovoltaic module and efficiency conversion photovoltaic/thermal solar systems. Solar
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Single pass rectangular collector absorber K.Sopian. 2009. Performance of Photovoltaic
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It is recommended for PV/T system to further 2007. Design, development and performance
improve its efficiency by optimizing the contact monitoring of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) air
surfaces between the solar panel (photovoltaic collector. Renewable Energy 10:6-22.
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It is also recommended to use other type of combined heating and photovoltaic power
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