Comparative analysis of CuO-based spiral flow photovoltaic sheet and tube thermal system

The current work investigates experimental characteristics of the PVT system integrated with CuO-water spiral flow heat exchanger and compared with non-cooled PV module. The work describes detailed procedure of nanoparticles preparation, SEM characterizations, and heat extraction characteristics of nanofluid in PVT application. The heat exchanger was pasted at the back of polycrystalline PV module to form PVT system to examine cooling ability, power generation, thermal-electrical yield and overall efficiency at a different volume concentration of CuO nanoparticles at steady mass-flow rate of 0.08 kg/s. From the experiments, it was concluded that the CuO-water nanofluids assisted to lessen surface temperature of PV module by extracting heat that enhanced electrical efficiency by an average of 3.53%. It was also seen that electrical and thermal performance was improved at higher volume concentration and overall efficiency of 30.77% and 36.59% were obtained at 0.01% and 0.03% of volume concentration.