Solar Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Hybrid System Trial in KIER

A solar Photovoltaic thermal (PVT) hybrid system is defined as a synergetic combination of Photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal components which produce both electricity and heat from the same surface area exposed to the sun. A PVT hybrid system with unglazed transpired collector (UTC) air heating system and a PV module in KIER was tried to design and explained in this paper. Two identical test rooms were constructed such that one had an unglazed transpired collector (UTC) on its south facing wall while the other had no any solar thermal collector. The temperature inside the room with UTC was 10-20°C higher than the temperature inside the room without UTC on a typical winter day. Generated heat power from UTC air heating system was about 11,000Wh/day during the test days. In second set of experiments, 75W PV modules were installed on the south facing wall of each test room. The temperature of the PV module with UTC was 4-8°C lower than the PV module without UTC resulting in a 3% improve of output electrical power under the forced ventilation. Generated PV electric power on the UTC system was about 342Wh/day but conventional PV electric power was about 333Wh/day during the test days. Therefore, this proposed solar PVT hybrid system may alleviate burden on conventional energy consumption for a fresh air heating the buildings and generating electricity power in a synergetic way.