Energy metrics analysis of N identical evacuated tubular collectors integrated single slope solar still

In this paper, theoretical analysis of single slope solar still (SS) integrated with N identical evacuated tubular collectors (N-ETC-SS) has been performed on the basis of energy metrics. The proposed system has been analyzed considering four categories of weather condition for each month of year for New Delhi climatic condition. Results of the proposed N-ETC-SS has been compared with SS integrated with N identical photovoltaic thermal (PVT) flat plate collectors (N-PVT-FPC-SS), SS integrated with N identical PVT compound parabolic concentrator collectors (N-PVT-CPC-SS) and conventional SS (CSS). It has been concluded that N-ETC-SS performs best on the basis of exergy based energy metrics followed by N-PVT-FPC-SS, CSS and N-PVT-CPC-SS. The value of exergy based energy payback time is lower by 40.38%, 102.78% and 166.58%; energy production factor is higher by 28.57%, 50.79% and 61.90% and life cycle conversion efficiency is higher by 44.83%, 65.52% and 75.86% for the proposed N-ETC-SS than N-PVT-FPC-SS, CSS and N-PVT-CPC-SS respectively.