Abstract
Utilization of solar energy is essential to reduce consumption of fuels and emission of carbon dioxide. Two common ways are photovoltaic and photo-thermal conversions. Solar cells and a thermal collector can be combined into one system to form a photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) system. The hybrid PV/T systems using amorphous-silicon (a-Si) cells might have a promising future due to its low initial cost. The objective of this paper is to provide a thermal analysis of this kind of hybrid PV/T system. Both the first-law analysis and the second-law analysis are applied for the hybrid system. The influence of a covering glass on the performance is emphasized. Effects of solar radiation, flow rate of the working fluid and wind speed are analyzed. Effects of the glass transmittance and the electrical efficiency of a-Si cells at the standard test temperature are also discussed. This work is important to the design of a hybrid PV/T system.
