A detailed analysis of CPV/T solar air heater system with thermal energy storage: A novel winter season application

The interest in solar energy is increasing day by day because it is clean and limitless. Concentrated photovoltaic and thermal systems (CPV/T) are one of the systems that use in the winter and the summer, attract great attention among solar energy systems. The main purpose of this research is to discuss the capacity of a CPV/T to simultaneously convert solar energy into electrical energy and thermal energy, especially in winter seasons. While only thermal energy is obtained in many concentrated air collectors (CAC) used in the literature, in this study, energy is stored with the help of phase change material (PCM). Ethyl alcohol and water blend were utilized as a working fluid and paraffin wax was also utilized as a PCM. In this study, system performance was handled by applying energy, exergy and environmental economic analyzes. In the results, the average solar radiation was concentrated from 536 W/m2 to 737 W/m2. The average overall thermal efficiency and PV module efficiency of the CPV/T were calculated as 73% and 15%, respectively. In other words, the overall system efficiency of the CPV/T was obtained as 88%. The average exergy efficiency of the CPV/T was calculated as 10%. Concerning the environmental aspect, 1.11 kg of CO2 emission per hour into the atmosphere could be prevented by using such a system. In the conclusions, the present paper has reported that the integration of a PCM and air collector into a CPV/T system provided higher energy efficiency in the winter season. •Development of a new hybrid CPV/T system for winter applications.•Effect of paraffin wax on the electrical and thermal energy performance.•Evaluation of the enviro-economic impact of a hybrid CPV/T system.