TEST STAND SOLUTION FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC THERMAL HYBRID SOLAR COLLECTORDEVICES UNDER REAL OPERATING CONDITIONS

摘要

Today the market is open to new solutions that integrate solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) devicesinto a single element in order to generate electricity and thermal energy, the so-called photovoltaic thermal (PVT)hybrid solar collectors, or simply hybrid modules. The PVT modules can improve the performance of the PV part dueto the cooling of PV cells. A test-stand for hybrid PVT systems was design to develop new solutions and for betterunderstanding their performance under real operating conditions. An innovative low-cost prototype of PVT modulewas developed using a radiant pipe system with a liquid heat-transfer medium used to cool photovoltaic cells. Toimprove the module design and to check their thermal behaviour for typical domestic hot-water systems, twodifferent PVT solutions were compared with an identical PV module without the heat transfer system. The new standtest was used in order to test the overall performance of the modules. The characteristics of two different collectortypes are here described by the authors.