Preliminary study based on building-integrated compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) PV/thermal technology

The PV/thermal (PV/T) technology is a system that uses work fluids to remove heat for use from PV cells. Compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs), as non-tracking concentrators when concentration ratios are below 3, are recognized as the suitable type of solar concentration device for building-integrated applications. In this study, we choose a new CPC-based PV/T system design with a U-type pipe as collector, and present a performance comparison between the common flat and the solar concentrating PV/T systems. The U-type pipe avoids the temperature gradient on the whole absorber and on every block cell, and simultaneously produces electricity using the same temperature. A series of PV and thermal outputs and efficiencies are simulated and calculated between different concentration ratios (1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3) of CPCs and common flat PV/T systems at different sunlight conditions. We can observe the influence of different concentration ratios and different absorber temperatures for the overall PV/T efficiencies of CPC-PV/T systems. At the same time, results show that the CPC-PV/T system with a Utype pipe has not only reduced the quantity of photovoltaic-cells efficiently, but also provided a higher temperature heat for space heating or water heating.