Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Photovoltaic-Thermal Collector With Natural Air Flow

The objective of present work is to analyze the energy and the exergy performance of a naturally ventilated photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) air collector which is designed, manufactured and tested at a geographic location of Kerman, Iran. This PV/T collector is tested in both glazed and unglazed types. In this system, a thin metal sheet is used to improve heat extraction from the PV panels and consequently achieving higher thermal and electrical output. The metal sheet is suspended at the middle of an air channel in the studied PV/T air configuration. A theoretical model is developed and validated against experimental data, where good agreement between the predicted results and measured data is achieved. The validated model is then used to study the effect of the solar radiation, channel depth, collector length, and PV cell efficiency on total energy and exergy efficiency of the studied system.