This article presented the detailed energy and exergy analysis performed on 4 different configurations of solar photovoltaic thermal collectors under Chennai climatic conditions. A comparative performance study of all the four different configurations was performed considering two mass flow rates of air as 0.00847 and 0.01130 kg/s. The parameters such as PV temperature, inlet and outlet air flow temperatures in the cooling channels, solar radiation, and ambient temperature were analyzed and studied in detail. It was found that the collector performance enhanced with increase in air velocity with further increase in heat transfer coefficient between the absorber surface and air. The experimental results obtained from the present work and the experimental performances of previously published results are found to be in good agreement. The electrical efficiency was from 9.8 to 12.9 % for 0.00847 kg/s and from 10.3 to 13.9 % for mass flow rate of air 0.0113 kg/s. The maximum thermal efficiency lies between 4.3 and 12.4 % for the mass flow rate of air 0.00847 kg/s and from 6.5 to 15.9 % for mass flow rate of air 0.01130 kg/s, respectively. Similarly, the maximum exergy efficiency ranges from 11.2 to 38.6 % for mass flow rate of air 0.00847 kg/s, and it varies between 18.4 and 49.4 % for mass flow rate of air 0.01130 kg/s.

The present study attempts to investigate the thermal performance of five types of mild steel air channels in the photovoltaic thermal hybrid system. This system has been designed, fabricated, and tested in the tropical climatic condition of Chennai, India. There are five kinds of air channels studied in this work, namely, reference air channel, single-fin channel, multifin channel, fin with T baffle channel, and fin with V baffle channel. These channels are studied and compared. The experiments were accomplished with two mass flow rates, m˙: 0.00565 and 0.00847 kg/s. The photovoltaic thermal hybrid system performance was enhanced by increased air velocity, enhanced heat transfer between the absorber surface and air, and physical geometry of the channel. This optimal performance has been attained in the present study, with strong agreement with previously published findings. The photovoltaic thermal hybrid system experimentally proved to enhance thermal and photovoltaic efficiencies with increasing air mass flow rate, and the maximum electrical efficiency was found to be 13.70 % at the mass flow rate of 0.00565 kg/s and 14.27 % at the mass flow rate of 0.00847 kg/s; similarly, the thermal efficiency was 14.12 % at m˙ = 0.00565 kg/s and 20.81 % at m˙ = 0.00847 kg/s.

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The objective of present study is to conduct exergy analysis on flat plate solar photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) hybrid system. The solar insolation, current, voltage, inlet and outlet air temperature of the cooling duct, ambient air temperature, and solar panel surface temperature are the major parameters used to calculate the energy and exergy efficiency. An amended electrical efficiency is used to estimate the electrical output and performance of PV/T hybrid system. Further, an enriched equation for the exergy efficiency of a PV/T hybrid system has been used for exergy analysis. Finally, parametric studies have been carried out. An extensive energy and exergy analysis is carried out to calculate the electrical and thermal parameters. The experimental results are in good agreement with the earlier studies. In addition to that, the electrical efficiency, thermal efficiency, electrical thermal efficiency, overall energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of PV/T hybrid system is found to be about 9.78%, 24.22%, 27.17%, 44.84% and 11.23% respectively.

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