Integrated solar photovoltaic and thermal system for enhanced energy efficiency

Abstract

South Africa has raised concerns regarding the development of renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and solar energy. Integration of a combined photovoltaic and thermal system was considered to transform simultaneous energy into electricity and heat. This was done to challenge the low energy efficiency observed when the two solar energy conversion technologies are employed separately, in order to gain higher overall energy efficiency and ensure better utilization of the solar energy. Therefore, the notion of using a combined photovoltaic and thermal system was to optimize and to improve the overall PV panel efficiency by adding conversion to thermal energy for residential and commercial needs of hot water or space heating or space cooling using appropriate technology. The PV/T model constructed using water as fluid like the one used for the experimental work, presented a marginal increase in electrical efficiency but a considerable yield on the overall PV/T efficiency, because of the simultaneous operation by coupling a PV module with a thermal collectors.