Efficiency Enhancement of Novel Photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) Air Collector

This paper presents the efficiency enhancement for a novel photovoltaic/thermal (PVT) air collector in which PV and thermal efficiency is simultaneously enhanced with a reciprocal aid. With the encapsulation of solar cells directly on a fin-type heat sink, the direct conduction mechanism and the convective area for the thermal transportation are effectively increased. Through a two-month experiment measurement, it is found that the thermal efficiency of PVT module is obviously enhanced up to over 50% in sunny days. In addition, the waste heat recovery decreases the operating temperature of solar cells and concurrently improves the PV efficiency. The results demonstrate the concurrent enhancement of the novel PVT module in PV electricity and solar thermal efficiency.