Integrated PV/T solar still- A mini-review

Water is a critical component for living existence on earth. Clean water is the need of hour, but the amount of clean water available in earth is drastically reduced due to water pollution caused by industrialization and rapid urbanization. Overall global climatic and seasonal changes also have a significant impact on the reduction of amount of fresh water. The need for clean water is continuously growing due to rise in human residents for the last few decades. Use of contaminated water leads to several water borne diseases and based on the intensity of contamination sometimes it leads to death. There are various processes for obtaining fresh water from contaminated water, but the most economical and preferable method is solar distillation since the process involved in it is similar to natural hydrological cycle which requires only solar energy for its operation. Solar stills are potable and do not require any additional skills for its operation and maintenance which makes it user friendly. Integrated PV/T solar still is used for isolated communities facing electrical energy troubles and a scarcity of good quality water. The daily fresh water produced from passive solar still was found to be 2-5 kg/m2 whereas from an active solar still integrated with PV/T collector can produced daily yield of about 6-12 kg/m2. In this paper, a comprehensive review of integration of solar still and PV module has been presented.