Dynamic study of a new concept of photovoltaic thermal hybrid collector

This work presents the development of a concept of solar Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) hybrid air collector. This type of collector combines the preheating of air through a gap at the underside of the PV modules in addition to the ordinary function of electricity production. The cooling of PV modules by heat extraction can improve the electrical efficiency. In this paper, a simplified dynamic two-dimensional mathematical model of solar PV/T hybrid air collector with a metal absorber is presented. The validation of this numerical model with the measured data obtained with a full-scale test bench located near Lyon is proposed. Then, a numerical parametric study is undertaken to determine the effect of the air gap ventilation type on the system preheated air thermal production and electrical production. The results show that forced ventilation provides the higher value of thermal production but natural ventilation is sufficient to cool the integrated PV modules. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.