Experimental characterization of a hybrid photovoltaic-thermal system with regeneration

Abstract

Currently, enormous quantities of waste energy are continuously discharged into the earth’s atmosphere from various sources. For example, in a photovoltaic panel, about 85% of the incident light is either dissipated as heat or reflected from the PV surface accounting huge losses. Reflection losses in a PV panel can be up to 20% even with antireflection layers inbuilt in them. In order to regenerate some of the optical losses in a photovoltaic system, a new hybrid photovoltaic-thermal system with regeneration (HPVT-Regen) is designed and built in this research. The new HPVT-Regen system design allows the photovoltaic and thermal subsystems to function independently while regenerating some of the optical losses by hybridization. The 3-D designs with complete dimensions of the experiment components were made in CATIA V5. The components were then purchased, fabricated and assembled with required instruments for detailed experimental characterization. Detailed experimentation of the HPVT-Regen system was conducted under indoor lab-scale solar simulator as well as under outdoor solar radiation conditions of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The results showed that the HPVT-Regen system regenerated 14% of the incident light, which was reflected from the PV panel and then converted into electrical as well as thermal energy. From the reflected light, the indoor test set up regenerated approximately 17 mW of electric power under lab simulator lights contributing less than 1% more electric power per unit surface area whereas the outdoor test set up regenerated approximately 137 mW of electric power under solar radiation contributing approximately 3% more electric power per unit surface area. The HPVT-Regen system regenerated 34% more thermal power in both indoor testing as well as in outdoor testing raising approximately 2.7 ⁰C of air temperature solely from the reflected light. This research thesis presents and discusses the design and real-time performance characteristics of the HPVT-Regen system under various real-time operating conditions.