The high cost of photovoltaic modules makes the use of concentrators for increasing the irradiance on the modules desirable. Furthermore, co-generation of heat and electricity in the same concentrating system increases the total efficiency of the system and reduces the cost of the electricity produced, provided that the thermal energy is utilised. In this article, the design and performance of a large water-cooled photovoltaic-thermal hybrid system with non-tracking compound parabolic concentrators and bifacial photovoltaic cells/thermal absorbers is discussed. In the new system presented here, the standard bifacial thermal absorber in a MaReCo collector has been replaced by a hybrid absorber with a silicon cell laminated on one side of a bifacial copper absorber. The MaReCo is a heavily truncated asymmetrical CPC, with a concentration ratio of 2.15 and an acceptance half angle of 22.5°. The annual output per solar cell area is estimated to 800 kWh/m~2 of heat and 200 kWh/m~2 of electricity, if the system installed in Stockholm, Sweden. The investment has been calculated to 0.8 Euro per annually delivered kWh and the corresponding capital cost is 0.08 Euro/kWh of heat and electricity, or 0.2 Euro/kWh of electricity if the investment cost is equally divided between thermal and electric energy. This means that the simultaneous use of hybrid, concentration, and bifacial cell technologies in combination with large area design has a potential to drastically reducing the cost of photovoltaic electricity.
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