ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-469-4
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-470-0
Second Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
EXERGY ANALYSIS AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A HYBRID PV/T SYSTEM BASED ON PLASMONIC NANOFLUIDS
Abstract
Solar energy can be harvested through photothermal, photovoltaic and photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems.
PV/T systems produce both thermal and electrical energy simultaneously, which lead to a higher combined
efficiency. In recent years, due to the tunable optical properties and excellent thermal properties, plasmonic
nanofluids have great potential in PV/T system working as both optical filter and coolants. In this study, a hybrid
PV/T system based on plasmonic nanofluids and silica aerogel glazing is proposed of the first time and evaluated
theoretically. Silica aerogel glazing is applied to the PV/T system as a thermally insulating and optically
transparent layer to reduce the thermal loss. Both electrical and thermal performances of this system are studied
numerically. An exergy analysis is carried out to evaluate the conversion rates of this hybrid PV/T system and
compared their performance to a standard PV system. The results show that PV/T systems based on plasmonic
nanofluids can produce more electrical and high grade thermal energy. In the concentrated solar systems (at C = 10), it was found that the exergy output of PV/T system with aerogel glazing can be enhanced by 8.3%
compared to the ones with traditional glazing. PV/T system based on plasmonic nanofluids and silica aerogel
glazing has a great potential for the development in the concentration solar systems.