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The main objective of this paper is to experimentally assess the real-life outdoor performance of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) module against a conventional photovoltaic (PV) system in a hot humid tropical climate in Ghana. An experimental setup comprising a water-based mono-crystalline silicon PVT and an ordinary mono-crystalline silicon PV was installed on a rooftop at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and results evaluated for the entire year of 2019. It was observed that the annual total output energy of PV module was 194.79 kWh/m2 whereas that of the PVT for electrical and thermal outputs were 149.92 kWh/m2 and 1087.79 kWh/m2, respectively. The yearly average daily electrical energy yield for the PV and PVT were 3.21 kWh/kWp/day and 2.72 kWh/kWp/day, respectively. The annual performance ratios for the PV and PVT (based on electrical energy output only) were 79.2% and 51.6%, respectively, whilst their capacity factors were, respectively, 13.4% and 11.3%. Whereas the highest monthly mean efficiency recorded for the PV was 12.7%, the highest combined measured monthly mean electrical/thermal efficiency of the PVT was 56.1%. It is also concluded that the PVT is a worthy prospective alternative energy source in off-grid situations.

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One-dimensional study of both electronic and electrical parameters of a silicon solar cell in the presence or not of an electric field, a magnetic field, or an electromagnetic field does not take into account the grain size and the grain boundary recombination velocity. A three-dimensional study, on the contrary, takes those factors into account.However, the three-dimensional study poses the problem of the attenuation of the wave in the grain of the polycrystalline solar cell as well as the issue of finding the expressions of its components. This study aimed to solve these issues by considering radio waves, which are becoming more and more present in our environment via telecommunication masts.We first obtained the expressions of both the electric field and magnetic field in a grain of a polycrystalline silicon solar cell by solving the dispersion equation. Then we investigated the evolution of the radio wave into the grain by analyzing the behavior of the exponential coefficient that appeared in the expressions of both the electric field and the magnetic field. The study has shown that the attenuation of the radio wave can be neglected through the polycrystalline silicon solar grain and by extension through the polycrystalline silicon solar cell.

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