In this paper, the interest in the development of a single-glazed flat-plate photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) collector is discussed. In order to evaluate the performances of a PV-T collector, a simplified 2D model has been used to simulate the thermal and electrical efficiency operating range according to the collector properties. Thus, key-parameters for performance improvements were identified and quantified. Based on those investigations a collector has been designed, built and tested. Improved assembling methods were used, focusing on both heat transfer between PV cells and fluid and on optical properties of materials. At zero reduced temperature and based on the absorber area, a thermal efficiency of 79% has been reached under PV operation for a corresponding electrical efficiency of 8.7%. The overall energy efficiency is quite high (87.7%) compared to results found in literature. Numerical simulations using TRNSYS software have been carried out. They were based on the parameters which were extracted from those experiments. They were carried out in order to compare the performances of four different systems for domestic hot water applications: PV-T collector, side-by-side (half PV module, half solar thermal collector), PV module and typical solar thermal. The considered total integrated area was 5m~2 for each configuration. The results of those investigations are presented in this paper and are very promising for the future development of PV-T collector.
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