Experimental study on a novel photovoltaic thermal system using amorphous silicon cells deposited on stainless steel

Li, Jing; Yuan, Weiqi; Li, Zhaomeng; Pei, Gang; Su, Yuehong; Kutlu, Çağrı; Ji, Jie; Riffat, Saffa

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2018.06.127

Cited by 21 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Common c-Si cells have large negative power temperature coefficients, which lie around -0.41 to -0.50 % at maximum power point under standard test conditions. With an efficiency of 18 % at 25 , the absolute efficiency drop can be 5% when temperature is increased to 75 [19]. This reduction is expected to be sharper at higher operating temperatures [20].…”

Section: Indirect Steam Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of an innovative PV/T-ORC system using amorphous silicon cells and evacuated flat plate solar collectors

Kutlu

et al. 2020

Energy

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Solar-driven organic Rankine cycle (s-ORC) power generation is a promising technology with thermal storage for flexible operation to meet domestic variable electricity demand. A satisfactory efficiency of this technology can be obtained only at medium-to-high temperature, for which conventional flat plate and evacuated tube solar collectors are not suitable while solar concentrators cannot efficiently utilize diffuse solar radiation. Evacuated flat plate (EFP) collectors have recently been developed for efficient solar heat collection in the temperature range from 100 to 200 , suitable for the ORC system. At present, the cost of EFP collectors is relatively high and will lead to a long payback period of the s-ORC system. To increase the annual power yield and reduce the payback time, inexpensive amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells are proposed to be integrated into the EFP collectors. It is the first time to put forward such photovoltaics/thermal (PV/T) design combining a-Si cells and EFP collectors. Compared with polycrystalline silicon cells (poly-Si), a-Si cells may have a higher electrical efficiency at a higher operating temperature due to the thermal annealing effect and are expected to have a long lifetime without encapsulation in the vacuum environment provided by the EFP collectors. In this study, the a-Si PV/T-ORC system using EFP collectors is investigated. Transient performance analysis of a-Si PV/T-ORC is given for the weather data of two selected days. A comparison is also made with a stand-alone poly-Si PV system, poly-Si PV/T-ORC system and s-ORC system with EFP collectors alone, respectively. The results indicate that for a typical day in July, the a-Si PV/T-ORC system has the highest daily power output of 0.822 kWh/m 2 , 102.3% more than the s-ORC system, 23.8% more than the stand-alone poly-Si PV system and 12% more than the poly-Si PV/T-ORC system, respectively.

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Section: Indirect Steam Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(18): (18) Shaft power can be found from Eq. ( 19): (19) This semi-empirical model contains empirically obtained parameters such as , and more. These parameters can be found in the reference paper [41].…”

Section: 4orc Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of an innovative PV/T-ORC system using amorphous silicon cells and evacuated flat plate solar collectors

Kutlu

et al. 2020

Energy

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“…In the authors' previous work at low operating temperature [45], the constructed collector (1100 mm × 820 mm) was designed to be smaller than a common c-Si PV/T collector to reduce the risk of electric conduction between the stainless steel and aluminum absorber. The thermal performance of the first prototype was expected to be low due to its small size.…”

Section: Description Of the A-si Pv/t Collectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Investigation on a heat pipe a-Si PV/T system has been done in Changsha, China, with an average electricity efficiency of 4.8% and thermal efficiency of 41% [44]. In the authors' previous work [45], a PV/T system using a-Si cells deposited on stainless steel was tested for the first time. Preliminary outdoor experiments in the temperature range from about 20 to 50 °C were conducted.…”

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confidence: 99%

Feasibility of an innovative amorphous silicon photovoltaic/thermal system for medium temperature applications

Pei

et al. 2019

Applied Energy

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Medium temperature photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems have immense potential in the applications of absorption cooling, thermoelectric generation, and organic Rankine cycle power generation, etc. Amorphous silicon (a-Si) cells are promising in such applications regarding the low temperature coefficient, thermal annealing effect, thin film and avoidance of large thermal stress and breakdown at fluctuating temperatures. However, experimental study on the a-Si PV/T system is rarely reported. So far the feasibility of medium temperature PV/T systems using a-Si cells has not been demonstrated. In this study, the design and construction of an innovative a-Si PV/T system of stainless steel substrate are presented. Long-term outdoor performance of the system operating at medium temperature has been monitored in the past 15 months. The average electrical efficiency was 5.65%, 5.41% and 5.30% at the initial, intermediate and final phases of the long-test test, accompanied with a daily average thermal efficiency from about 21% to 31% in the non-heating season. The thermal and electrical performance of the system at 60 °C, 70 °C and 80 °C are also analyzed and compared. Moreover, a distributed parameter model with experimental validation is developed for an inside view of the heat transfer and power generation and to predict the system performance in various conditions. Technically, medium temperature operation has not resulted in interruption or observable deformation of the a-Si PV/T system during the period. The technical and thermodynamic feasibility of the a-Si PV/T system at medium operating temperature is demonstrated by the experimental and simulation results.

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“…Amorphous silicon (a-Si) cell is a promising photovoltaic (PV) material for photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system [1]. The power temperature coefficient of a-Si cells, which is lower than that of crystalline silicon (c-Si) cells (−0.4%/°C), ranges between −0.1%/°C and −0.2%/°C [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Temperature on Long-Term Experimental Performance of an Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Thermal System

Ren,

Li,

Pei

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Experimental study on a novel photovoltaic thermal system using amorphous silicon cells deposited on stainless steel

Cited by 21 publications

References 39 publications

Investigation of an innovative PV/T-ORC system using amorphous silicon cells and evacuated flat plate solar collectors

Investigation of an innovative PV/T-ORC system using amorphous silicon cells and evacuated flat plate solar collectors

Feasibility of an innovative amorphous silicon photovoltaic/thermal system for medium temperature applications

Effect of Temperature on Long-Term Experimental Performance of an Amorphous Silicon Photovoltaic Thermal System

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