Experimental studies of active solar still integrated with two hybrid PVT collectors

•Experiment on active PVT-FPC solar still has been carried out.•Modeling, validation, productivity and performance analysis have been done.•Coefficient of determination, % uncertainty, r and e has been calculated.•Productivity is more than 100% which suggests the feasibility of system.•Production cost of water and cost of electricity gain have been calculated. This paper deals with the experimental studies and performance analysis of partially covered hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) flat plate collector (FPC) solar still. The thermal model of the system has been developed. The data have been collected for the composite climate condition of New Delhi. The experimental results have been compared with theoretical results. It has been observed that there is a fair agreement between the experimental and theoretical values with the correlation coefficients varying between 0.97 and 0.99. The coefficient of determination varies between 0.94 and 0.98. The annual productivity has been found to vary between 120.29% and 883.55%. The thermal, exergy and overall thermal efficiency have been evaluated. It has also been observed that the proposed system is self sustainable and it can meet potable water requirement as well as electricity requirement.