PV/T cogeneration in Italy: energetic and economic evaluations for civil applications

Nowadays, it is a major and widespread goal that of reducing the environmental and economic impact of the energy production technologies. That is surely more evident in developed countries, like Italy, where the natural resources are not so abundant and where the government is forced both from public opinion and international agreements (like Kyoto) to support more and more renewables like photovoltaics. The photovoltaic-thermal cogeneration is seen to be a promising technology allowing better electrical efficiencies together with heat for thermal applications. In particular for civil applications the electrical and thermal energy is suitably used respectively to partially cover the needs for electricity and domestic hot water/space heating. So, the Italian climate and granting scenario is taken into account with TRNSYS simulations to evaluate the economic viability of the proposed PV/T technology.