Abstract. This paper deals with the efficiency improvement of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) Photovoltaic (PV) and also solar thermal collector. Photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) can improve overall efficiency for PV and also solve the problem of limited roof space at urban area. Objective of this study is to clarify the effect of mass flow rate on the efficiency of the PV/T system. A CIGS solar cell is used with rated output power 65 W and 1.18 m 2 of area. 4 set of experiments were carried out, which were: thermal collector with 0.12 kg/s flow rate, PV/T with 0.12 kg/s flow rate, PV/T with 0.09 kg/s flow rate and PV. It was found that PV/T with 0.12 kg/s flow rate had the highest electrical efficiency, 2.92 %. PV/T with 0.09 kg/s flow rate had the lowest electrical efficiency, 2.68 %. It also had 2 % higher overall efficiency. The efficiency gained is low due to several factors. The rated output power of the PV is low for the area of 1.18 m 2 . The packing factor of the PV also need to be considered as it may not be operated at the optimal packing factor. Furthermore, aluminium sheet of the PV may affect the PV temperature due to high thermal conductivity. Further study on more values of mass flow rate and also other parameters that affect the efficiency of the PV/T is necessary.

This paper intended to investigate the performance of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) based Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T) water collector under different operating condition. A CIGS photovoltaic with nominal power 65 W combined with an unglazed flat plate solar thermal water collector with effective area of 2 m was investigated. The performance was tested under different mass flow rates of flowing water which are 0.005 kg/s, 0.020 kg/s and 0.030 kg/s. For the mass flow rate of 0.030 kg/s, data was taken at different Peak Sun Hour (PSH) condition from 4.2 to 5.7. It was found that both electrical and thermal efficiency increased when the mass flow rate increased. Both electrical and thermal performance increased at the higher mass flow rate with the most efficient flow rate was 0.030 kg/s. The highest electrical and thermal efficiency was 4% and 23% respectively. In addition, when PSH increased, the electrical and thermal efficiency increased. However, at the PSH of 5.7 both efficiency slightly decreased. Further study on higher mass flow rate is necessary as the performance is not always proportional with mass flow rate. In this paper the value of the PSH was only limited to 4 points, which need to be further investigated for more values to clarify the correlation with the PV/T performance.

Abstract. Photovoltaic Thermal (PV/T) system emerged as one of the convenient type of renewable energy system acquire the ability to generate power and thermal energy in the absence of moving parts. However, the power output of PV/T is intermittent due to dependency on solar irradiation condition. Furthermore, its efficiency decreases because of cells instability at high temperature. On the other hand, fuel cell co-generation system (CGS) is another technology that can generate power and heat simultaneously. Integration of PV/T and fuel cell CGS could enhance the reliability and sustainability of both systems as well as increasing the overall system performance. Hence, this paper intended to present the parameters that affect performance of PV/T and Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) CGS. Moreover, recent developments on PV/T-fuel cell hybrid system are also presented. Based on literates, mass flow rate of moving fluid in PV/T was found to affect the system efficiency. For the PEMFC, when the heat is utilized, the system performance can be increased where the heat efficiency is similar to electrical efficiency which is about 50%. Recent developments of hybrid PV/T and fuel cell show that most of the studies only focus on the power generation of the system. There are less study on the both power and heat utilization which is indeed necessary in future development in term of operation strategy, optimization of size, and operation algorithm.

This research work is intended to evaluate the reliability of commonly utilized empirical correlations of module operation temperature in estimating the photovoltaic performances in tropical region. The Nominal Operation Cell Temperature (NOCT) model, Tropical Field Operation Cell Temperature (tFOCT) model and the experimental back module temperature were selected for evaluation purposes. The models were evaluated by comparing the performance characteristics of a 250W monocrystalline photovoltaic module installed at University Malaysia Pahang. The monocrystalline back module temperature and power output as well as the environmental data including both solar irradiation and ambient temperature were monitored to assist the analysis. Based on the 5 consecutive day experimental data, results indicated that the module operation temperature estimated by tFOCT model had the closest value to the experimental back module temperature. Whereas, the temperature estimated by NOCT model showed the highest deviation up to 25.8% from the experimental back module temperature. However, in terms of estimating the photovoltaic module power output, the NOCT model had the closest value to the experimentally measured power output. The results also indicated that utilizing the back module temperature often mislead the estimation of photovoltaic module power output. In addition, the deviation of estimated power output from NOCT model, tFOCT model and back module operation temperature as compared to the experimental power output were 15.4%, 18.87% and 21.2%, respectively. Thus, the NOCT model demonstrated better estimation of power output as compared to the experimental result than tFOCT model, and back module temperature. However, better estimation method for tropical regions is still needed because three methods evaluated in this study shows deviation of more than 15.4% from the measured power output.