Numerical and experimental investigation on the performance of hybrid PV/thermal systems in the north of Iran

Solar energy is greatly recommended as a source of renewable energy in wide range of in-house applications to large power plants. Photovoltaic (PV) panels utilized for absorbing solar energy have some limitations: low efficiency, large occupied space and high dependency on environmental conditions. Panel surface temperature is one of the main conditions affecting PV panels. High temperatures would lead to lower panel efficiency. Therefore, researchers have proposed hybrid PV/thermal systems where maintaining panel temperature for higher efficiency is participated in heat production. This benefit made it attractive for household consumption. In this paper, a numerical method is deployed to find an appropriate cooling tube configuration for a specified panel. The selected configuration was prepared for experimental studies on a hybrid PV/thermal system in the northern part of Iran. As this region receives lower irradiation compared to southern parts, People are not persuaded to use photovoltaic systems, so using hybrid systems can motivate them to use solar energy on a small scale. Results showed that serpentine tube configuration would lead to a 7.3% increase in electrical efficiency compared to the no-cooling state, and also thermal efficiency raised to 48.4%. Total efficiency reached 51.76% at the highest performance. Therefore this design provides a possible platform for increasing PV/T systems performance.