A large portion of incident solar radiation on photovoltaic (PV) panels is transformed into heat; thus, reducing photovoltaic panel power. The photovoltaic module’s efficiency depends primarily on the ambient temperature, the temperature of the module, the incoming intensity of the solar radiation, and the composition of the PV material. Depending on the type of solar cells used, PV panel efficiency typically drops by 0.5 for each degree rise in temperature. The cooling technique is also beneficial to maintain the cell at the operating temperature and should be such that, with a uniform distribution, it holds the average cell temperature to its minimum values. The supply of drinking water is increasingly declining with increasing population, growth, and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is appropriate to concentrate on available distilling water. Due to its low cost, energy, and ability requirements, solar still is one of the promising technologies available for water purification. The current work attempts numerically to suggest and analyze the production of distilled water, electric power, and heating water for domestic by utilizing a simple passive cooling technique for a new hybrid PV/T. The present work benefits from the unwilled heat of PV panel to obtain freshwater without the construction of solar still by putting a glass cover on the original frame of PV. The system’s performance is investigated from various aspects such as distilled water yield, production of electrical and thermal power instantaneously, and daily by considering three types of mass flow rate in inner wick and four types in the outer wick. Results show that the mass flow rate of inner wick does not significantly affect the temperature of PV and distilled water yield, but the mass flow rate in outer wick has affected distilling water. The production of water was maximum for the CPVWD module and is increased by about 65.73% more than that for the PVWD. The CPVWD module is found to display the highest electrical efficiency while the PVWD shows the lowest value. Good agreement between the present results and previous works was found.

Solar energy is one of the most efficient forms of renewable energy. Solar air collectors are promising utilization of solar energy. The present study used unsteady three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis to investigate the heat transfer and fluid friction in solar air collectors with smooth and v-corrugation absorber plates. The studied parameters are Reynolds number, v-corrugation height, and pitch. Three Reynolds number (500, 1000, 1500) values were used with three arrangements configuration of the v-corrugation of relative heights of 0.10, 0.16, and 0.23. Roughness pitches varied between 1.33, 1.66, and 2. By comparing the simulated thermal efficiency with the currently known experimental values, great agreement can be approved. Results show the superiority of the performance of v-corrugated collector against the traditional or smooth type. The outlet temperature obtained in case of relative roughness height = 0.23 and relative roughness pitch = 2 is 61 °C, while it is 53 °C for a smooth type. Also, a higher thermal efficiency of 46.7 % can be obtained compared to 33.01% for smooth type.

The panel absorbed solar radiation and majority of this radiation is transform into a heat, and it is usually wasted and useless. At higher cell temperature, the current out of the cell has an unnoticeable rise, but the voltage value will drop significantly, resulting in a reduction in maximum power produced. The cooling method is therefore beneficial to keep the panel at the operation temperature. A simulation model is developed using COMSOL Multiphysics software version 3.5 software to investigate the enhancement in performance of a PV water cooling module (PVW module) based on a passive and simple cooling technique using a wetted cotton porous wick attached on the PV panel's back side and compare with uncooled PV panel (PVREF module). Unsteady, laminar and 2-D, the flow in the proposed modules is assumed. The input parameters were taken from a real weather condition was perform in Najaf-Iraq. The effect of variation of mass flow rate is also studied in the present work. Good agreement was obtained for PVREF module with previously researches.