Paper Conference

Proceedings of BSO Conference 2018: Fourth Conference of IBPSA-England

     

Development and Evaluation of a Model for Liquid-based Photovoltaic/Thermal Panels in TRNSYS

Kristen Jaczko, Stephen Harrison

Abstract: Photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors combine features of a solar thermal collector and a PV module into a single panel to maximize the collection of thermal and electrical energy. There currently are several simulation models in TRNSYS for PV/T modules, however, these are for PV/T panels cooled by circulating a fluid though an integral “tube and sheet” absorber (i.e., heat exchanger) and are not suitable for a large group of commercially available PV/T panels that incorporate a “fully wetted” absorber bonded to the back side of a conventional PV panel. The existing PV/T models in TRNSYS are also not suitable for simulating the performance of a panel when the surround ambient temperature is higher than the inlet fluid temperature, and as such, a new PV/T model was developed and implemented. This model iteratively solves for the panel's outlet fluid temperature and estimates the PV power output under specified conditions. This paper describes the theoretical basis of the new model and compares the simulated and experimental data. To test the new model, simulation results were compared to data experimentally measured on an operating PV/T array. These results indicate that the new TRNSYS model was able to predict the performance of the PV/T panel to within the estimated measurement error
Pages: 245 - 252
Paper:
bso2018_3A-4