Performance of Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal Solar Collector

A hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar system (or PVT system for simplicity) is a combination of the photovoltaic solar cell (PV) and solar thermal components/systems which produce both electricity and heat from one integrated component or system. In other words, PV module is utilized as a part of the thermal absorber. In the PV module, solar cells are set up as an absorber collecting solar thermal energy. When the temperature of PV module increases the electrical efficiency of PV module decreases. Cooling the PV cell to lower temperature led to increasing the output energy or power of a solar photovoltaic system . Photovoltaic thermal solar collectors are also known as hybrid solar collectors have attracted considerable attention from researchers and scientists during the last decade because of their higher efficiency and stability of performance in comparison to individual solar devices.