Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Analytical expression for electrical efciency of PV/T hybrid air collector

Swapnil Dubey *, G.S. Sandhu, G.N. Tiwari
Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 May 2008
Received in revised form 26 July 2008
Accepted 5 September 2008
Available online 18 October 2008
Keywords:
Photovoltaic
Electrical efciency
Solar radiation
Thermal energy

a b s t r a c t
The overall electrical efciency of the photovoltaic (PV) module can be increased by reducing the temperature of the PV module by withdrawing the thermal energy associated with the PV module. In this
communication an attempt has been made to develop analytical expression for electrical efciency of
PV module with and without ow as a function of climatic and design parameters. The four different congurations of PV modules are considered for the present study which are dened as; case A (Glass to glass
PV module with duct), case B (Glass to glass PV module without duct), case C (Glass to tedlar PV module
with duct), case D (Glass to tedlar PV module without duct). Further, experiments were carried out for all
congurations under composite climate of New Delhi.
It is found that the glass to glass PV modules with duct gives higher electrical efciency as well as the
higher outlet air temperature amongst the all four cases. The annual effect on electrical efciency of glass
to glass type PV module with and without duct is also evaluated. The annual average efciency of glass to
glass type PV module with and without duct is 10.41% and 9.75%, respectively.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Photovoltaic (PV) directly convert solar radiation into electricity
with peak efciency in the range of 912%, depending on specic
solar cell type. More than 80% of the solar radiation falling on
photovoltaic (PV) cells is not converted to electricity, but either
reected or converted to thermal energy. This leads to an increase
in the PV cells working temperature and consequently, a drop of
electricity conversion efciency. In view of this, hybrid photovoltaic and thermal (PV/T) systems are introduced to simultaneously
generate electricity and thermal power. In PV/T system applications the production of electricity is the main priority, therefore
it is necessary to operate the PV modules at low temperature,
the carrier of thermal energy associated with the PV module may
be either air or water. Kern and Russel [1] present the design and
performance of water and air cooled PV/T systems, while Hendrie
[2] and Florschuetz [3] include PV/T modelling in their works.
Numerical methods predicting PV/T system performance are
developed by Raghuraman [4], computer simulations are studied
by Cox and Raghuraman [5], a low cost PV/T system with transparent type a-Si cells is proposed by Lalovic et al. [6] and results from
an applied air type PV/T system are given by Loferski et al. [7]. Garg
and Adhikari [8] present a variety of results regarding the effect of
design and operational parameters on the performance of air type
PV/T systems.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9868929291.

E-mail address: swapnil_iitd@rediffmail.com (S. Dubey).
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2008.09.003

Hagazy [9] and Sopian et al. [10] investigated glazed photovoltaic/thermal air system for a single and a double pass air heater for
space heating and the drying purposes. Kalogirou [11] has carried
out monthly performance of an unglazed hybrid PV/T system under forced mode of operation for climatic condition of the Cyprus.
He observed an increase of the mean annual efciency of the PV
solar system from 2.8% to 7.7% with thermal efciency of 49%.
Lee et al. [12] and Chow et al. [13] give interesting modelling results on air cooled PV modules. Jones and Underwood [14] have
studied the temperature prole of the photovoltaic (PV) module
in a non-steady state condition with respect to time. They
conducted experiment for cloudy as well clear day condition. They
observed that the PV module temperature varies in the range of
300325 K (2752 C) for an ambient air temperature of 297.5 K
(24.5 C). The main reasons for reduction of the electrical efciency of the PV module is packing factor (PF) of PV module, ohmic
losses between two consecutive solar cells and the temperature of
the module. The overall electrical efciency of the PV module can
be increased by increasing the packing factor (PF) and reducing
the temperature of the PV module by withdrawing the thermal energy associated with the PV module, [15,16]. Packing factor is the
ratio of total area of solar cells to the area of PV module. To increase the efciency of PV a sun-tracking design is presented by
Mohamad [17], the movement of a photovoltaic module was controlled to follow the Suns radiation using a programmable logiccontroller (PLC) unit. He has found that the daily output power
of the PV was increased by more than 20% in comparison with that
of a xed module. Based on the IV curves of a photovoltaic (PV)
module, a novel and simple model is proposed to predict the PV

698

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

Nomenclature
b
L
C
h
hp1, hp2
I(t)
IL
Isc
K
_
m
T
Utc,a
UTc,f
Ub
UL
VL
Voc

width of PV module (m)

length of PV module (m)
specic heat (J/kg C)
heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 C)
penalty factor due to the glass cover of PV module
(dimensionless)
incident solar intensity (W/m2)
load current (A)
short circuit current (A)
thermal conductivity (W/m K)
rate of ow of air (kg/s)
temperature (C)
an overall heat transfer coefcient from solar cell to
ambient through glass cover (W/m2 C)
an overall heat transfer coefcient from solar cell to
owing air through glass cover/tedlar (W/m2 C)
an overall back loss coefcient from owing air/plate to
ambient (W/m2 C)
an overall heat transfer coefcient for glass to glass and
glass to tedlar modules (W/m2 C)
load voltage (V)
open circuit voltage (V)

module performance for engineering applications. PV module performance is mainly depends upon solar-irradiance intensity and PV
module temperature [18].
Tiwari et al. [19] have validated the theoretical and experimental results for photovoltaic (PV) module integrated with air duct for
composite climate of India and concluded that an overall thermal
efciency of PV/T system is signicantly increased due to utilization of thermal energy from PV module. Tripanagnostopoulos
[20] presented a new type of PV/T collector with dual heat extraction operation with aspects and improvements of hybrid PV/T solar
energy systems. Design of PV integrated solar-collector for natural
circulation of water is presented by He et al. [21].
The methodology for the analytical treatment of the reliability of
PV systems is proposed by Hamdy et al. [22]. The method depends
upon the logic of the fault-tree technique. The reliabilities of the different components of a PV system are used to predict the reliability
of the overall system. The performance analysis of a photovoltaic
heat pump is presented by Jie et al. [23], in this system the PV/T collector is coupled with a solar assisted heat pump and works as an
evaporator and found that the photovoltaic solar assisted heat
pump (PV-SAHP) has better coefcient of performance (COP) and
photovoltaic efciency than the separate units. The COP of the
PV-SAHP reached 8.4 and the average value was around 6.5,
whereas the average photovoltaic efciency was around 13.4%.
Muntasser et al. [24] describes the Photovoltaic marketing in
developing countries and examine marketing opportunities for
PV technologies in less-developed countries, which were previously dominated by the industrialized countries and concludes
by making a global policy package proposal, in terms of an appeal
on the global community concerned with PV to propagate this proposal more convincingly, perhaps to emanate from an internationally recognized forum, like a PV conference and exhibition, with
cooperation and participation of PV manufacturers, suppliers,
industrialized countries, NGOs, nancial institutions and developing countries. Recently, Zondag [25] carried out rigorous review
on research work of a PVthermal collector and system, carried
out by various scientists till 2006. His review includes the history
and importance of photovoltaic hybrid system and its application
in various sectors. It also includes characteristics equations, study
of design parameters, and marketing, etc.

V, v

go
g

air velocity (m/s)

efciency at standard test condition (I(t) = 1000 W/m2
and Ta = 25 C) (dimensionless)
temperature dependent efciency (dimensionless)

Subscripts
a
ambient
c
solar cell
eff
effective
f
uid (air)
inlet uid
fi
outgoing uid
fo
g
glass
p
blackened plate
T
tedlar
Greek symbols
absorptivity
product of effective absorptivity and transmittivity
b
packing factor
s
transmitivity

a
(as)eff

In this paper, two types of PV module, glass to glass and glass to

tedlar, with and without duct are considered for the study. The solar intensity based analytical expression of electrical efciency of
PV modules are derived and performance are evaluated by considering four types of weather condition of New Delhi, which are
dened as:
Type a: The ratio of daily diffuse to daily global radiation is less
than or equal to 0.25 and sunshine hours greater then or equal to
9 h.
Type b: The ratio of daily diffuse to daily global radiation
between 0.25 and 0.50 and sunshine hours between 7 and 9 h.
Type c: The ratio of daily diffuse to daily global radiation
between 0.50 and 0.75 and sunshine hours between 5 and 7 h.
Type d: The ratio of daily diffuse to daily global radiation is
greater than or equal to 0.75 and sunshine hours less then or
equal to 5 h.
Data of solar radiations for different climates are obtained from
Indian Metrological Department (IMD), Pune. The both type of
PV module is manufactured by Central Electronics Ltd. (CEL),
Sahibabad, Ghaziabad (UP).

2. Thermal analysis of PV modules

Two types of PV module, glass to glass and glass to tedlar with
and without duct are considered for the present study. PV modules
are tilted at 30, equal to the latitude of New Delhi. The cut sectional views of PV modules with duct are shown in Fig. 1. Wooden
duct is embedded below the PV modules for air circulation having
a cross section of 0.605 m  1.0 m  0.04 m. In case of with ow/
duct air is owing in forced mode with the help of a DC fan of
12 V, which is run by PV module. In order to write the energy balance equation of photovoltaic modules, the following assumptions
have been made:
 One dimensional heat conduction is good approximation for the
present study.
 The glass cover is at uniform temperature.
 There is stream line ow of air through the duct.

699

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705




g go 1  bo T c  T a

1c

(ii) For blackened absorber plate:

ap 1  bc s2g It b dx hp;f T p  T f U bp;a T p  T a b dx

2a

3 2
3
The rate of solarenergy
The rate of heat
6 available on blackened 7 6 transferfrom
7
6
7 6
7
6
76
7
4 surfacefrom non packing 5 4 blackened plate 5
area of PV module
to flowing fluid
2
3
An overall heat
4 loss from plate 5
to ambient
From Eq. (2a), the expression for plate temperature is

Tp

ap 1  bc s2g It hp;f T f U bp;a T a

U bp;a hp;f

2b

(iii) For air owing through the duct:

The energy balance of owing air through absorber pipe is given
by



dT f
dx hp;f T p  T f U Tc;f T c  T f b dx
dx
2
3
2
3
The rate ofheat
The mass flow
6 transfer from
7
4 rate offlowing 5 6
7
4 blackened plate to 5
fluid
flowing fluid
2
3
An overall heat
4
transfer from cell 5
to flowing fluid
_ aCa
m

Fig. 1. (a) Cut sectional view of glass to glass PV module with duct. (b) Cut sectional
view of glass to tedlar PV module with duct.

 The system is in quasi-steady state.

 The ohmic losses in the solar cell are negligible.
The energy balance equations for glass to glass and glass to tedlar PV modules are as follows.
2.1. Case A: glass to glass PV module with duct (Fig. 1a)
(i) For solar cells of PV module:
Following Dubey and Tiwari [26], the energy balance equation
for solar cell of PV module can be written as

1a

3
2
3
An overall heat
The rate of heat
6 lossfrom top 7
6
7 6
7 6
7
4 energy available 5 6
7 4 transfer from cell 5
4 surface of cell 5
on solar cell
to flowing fluid
to ambient
2
3
The rate of
6
7
4 electrical energy 5
2

The rate of solar

The solution of Eq. (3) with the help of Eqs. (1b) and (2b) and
initial conditions namely, at T f jx0 , Tf = T1 and at T f jxL , Tf = Tfo1,
we get,

T fo

ac sg bc Itb dx U tc;a T c  T a U Tc;f T c  T f b dx

sg gac bc Itb dx
3




asGG;eff It
bU L;GG L
T a 1  exp 
_ aCa
m
U L;GG


bU L;GG L
T fi exp 
_ aCa
m

Z
1 L
T f dx
L 0

3
2
bU
L


1  exp  m_L;GG
asGG;eff It
a Ca
5 T fi

T a 41 
bU L;GG L
U L;GG
_ a Ca
m


bU
L
1  exp  m_L;GG
a Ca

bU
L

Tf

L;GG

From Eq. (1a), the expression for cell temperature is

1b

U tc;a U bc;f

An expression for temperature dependent electrical efciency

of a PV module Schott [27] and Evans [28] is given by

If T = Ta and T f T f , then from Eqs. (1b), (1c), and (4b), the expression for temperature dependent electrical efciency can be obtained
as
L
.
where X o bUm_LGG
a Ca

bo
Tc;f
o
go 1  Utc;asgU
ac bc UUL;GG
hp1 ac bc hp2 ap 1  bc sg 1  1expX
Xo
Tc;f

1

go bo sg bc ac It
U tc;a U Tc;f

4b

_ a Ca
m

sg ac bc 1  gIt U tc;a T a U Tc;f T f

4a

The average air temperature over the length of air duct below
PV module is obtained as

produced

Tc


U hp1
o
1 UTc;f
1  1expX
Xo
L;GG

i
It
5

700

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

U T T c  T bs b dx hT T bs  T f b dx

2.2. Case B: glass to glass PV module without duct

(i) For solar cells of PV module:
Following Dubey and Tiwari [26], the energy balance equation
for solar cell of PV module can be written as

sg ac bc sg 1  bc Itb dx U tc;a T c  T a U b T c  T a b dx
6a
sg gac bc Itb dx
2

An overall heat

Tc

An overall heat
The rate of heat transfer
4 transfer from cell to 5 4 from back surface of the 5
back surface of tedlar
tedlar to flowing fluid
Using Eqs. (8b) and (9a), the expression for back surface temperature of PV module can be obtained as

go 1 
1

bo asGG;eff It
U tc;a U b

6b

i
7

bo go sg ac bc It
U tc;a U b

9b

10

The solution of Eq. (11a) with the help of Eqs. (9b) and (10) and initial conditions namely, at T f jx0 , Tf = T1 and at T f jxL , Tf = Tfo1, we get,

T fo

From Eqs. (1c) and (6b), the expression for the efciency of glass to
glass PV module can be obtained as

hp1 sg ac bc aT 1  bc  ac gbc It U tT T a hT T f

U tT hT

dT f
dx U b T f  T a b dx hT T bs  T f b dx
dx
2
3 2
3
The mass flow
An overall heat transfer
4 rate offlowing 5 4 from flowing fluid to 5
fluid
ambient
2
3
The rate of heat transfer
4 from back surface of the 5
tedlar to flowing fluid

U tc;a U b

_ aCa
m

produced

asGG;eff  sg gac bc It U tc;a T a U b T a

9a

(iii) For the air owing below the tedlar:

From Eq. (6a), the expression for cell temperature is

T bs

The rate of solar

7
6
6
7 6 lossfrom top 7
7
4 energy available 5 6
7
6
4 surface of cell 5
on PV module
to ambient
2
3 2
3
An overall heat
The rate of
6
7 6
7
4 loss from back side 5 4 electrical energy 5
of the cell

hp1 hp2 asGT;eff It

Ta
U L;GT


bU L;GT L
T fi exp 
_ aCa
m





bU L;GT L
1  exp 
_ aCa
m

11a

The average air temperature over the length of air duct below
PV module is obtained as

3
2
bU
L

Tf

2.3. Case C: glass to tedlar PV module with duct (Fig. 1b)



1  exp  m_L;GT
hp1 hp2 asGT;eff It
a Ca
5
T a 41 
bU L;GT L
U L;GT
0
_ a Ca
m


bU
L
1  exp  m_L;GT
a Ca
11b
T fi
bU
L
1
L

T f dx

L;GT

(i) For solar cells of PV module:

Following Tiwari and Sodha [29], the energy balance equation
for solar cell of PV module can be written as

go 1 
g

back surface of tedlar

12

L
.
where X o bUm_LGG
a Ca

2.4. Case D: glass to tedlar PV module without duct

An overall heat
7
6
6
lossfrom top 7
6
7
7
6 energy available 7 6
7
4
5 6
6 surface of cell 7
5
4
on PV module
to ambient
2
3 2
3
An overall heat
The rate of
6
7 6
7
7 6
7
6
4 transfer from cell to 5 4 electrical energy 5
The rate of solar

(i) For solar cells of PV module:

Following Tiwari and Sodha [29], the energy balance equation
for solar cell of PV module can be written as

sg ac bc aT 1  bc Itb dx U tc;a T c  T a U b T c  T a b dx
13a
sg gac bc Itb dx
2

produced

From Eq. (8a), the expression for cell temperature is

Tc

If T = Ta and T f T f , then from Eqs. (1c), (8b), (9b), and (11b), the
expression for temperature dependent electrical efciency can be
obtained as




bo sg ac bc aT 1  bc It
U T hp1
U T hT hp1 hp2
1  expX o
1

1
U tc;a U T
Xo
hT U tT hT U tT U L;GT



bo go sg ac bc It
U T hp1
U T hT hp1 hp2
1  expX o
1
1

1
U tc;a U T
Xo
hT U tT hT U tT U L;GT

sg ac bc aT 1  bc Itb dx U tc;a T c  T a U T T c  T bs b dx
8a
sg gac bc Itb dx
2

_ a Ca
m

sg ac bc aT 1  bc  ac gbc It U tc;a T a U T T bs

U tc;a U T

(ii) For the back surface of the tedlar:

8b

The rate of solar

An overall heat

7
6
6
7 6 loss from top 7
7
4 energy available 5 6
4 surface of cell 5
on PV module
to ambient
2
3 2
3
An overall heat
The rate of
6
7 6
7
4 loss from back side 5 4 electrical energy 5
of the cell
produced

701

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

From Eq. (13a), the expression for cell temperature is

h
Tc

asGT;eff

i
 sg gac bc It U tc;a T a U b T a
U tc;a U b

2.6. Correlation coefcient and root mean square percent deviation

13b

From Eqs. (1c) and (13b), the expression for the efciency of glass to
glass PV module can be obtained as

GT;eff It
go 1  bo aUstc;a
U b

1

i
14

bo go sg ac bc It
U tc;a U b

In addition to the above equations the relations used for dening the design parameters (Table 1) and different conguration of
glass to glass and glass to tedlar PV modules with and without duct
are given in Appendix.

To compare the theoretical and experimental results the correlation coefcient (r) and root mean square percent deviation (e)
have been evaluated by using the following expressions:

P
P
P
N X i Y i  X i Y i
q

r q
P
P
P
P
N X 2i  X i 2 N Y 2i  Y i 2

16a

And

s
P 2
ei
e
N

16b

where



Xi  Y i
 100
Xi

ei

gexp

0:8  V oc  Isc  IL  V L

Am  It

15

where 0.8 is the ll factor or power factor, it measure of sharpness

of the knee in IV curve. It indicates how well a junction was made
in the cell and how low the series resistance has been made. It can
be lowered by the presence of series resistance and tends to be
higher whenever the open circuit voltage is high.

2
Solar intensity, W/m

Experimental efciency of PV module can be calculated as

900

40

800

35

700

30

600

25

500

20

400

15

300

I(t)

200

10

Ta

100
0

Ambient temperature,C

2.5. Electrical efciency of PV module

0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)

go
sg

0.605 m
7.6 W/m2 K
1.0 m
0.0058 kg/s
1005 J/kg K
7.44 W/m2 K
0.9
0.8
0.5
0.83
0.0045
0.12
0.95

Glass to glass with duct

hp1
hp2
Kg
Lg
UTc,f
UL,GG
Ubp,a

0.536
0.934
1.1 W/m K
0.003 m
8.59 W/m2 K
4.56 W/m2 K
0.62 W/m2 K

ac
ap
aT
bc
bo

Glass to glass without duct

Ub

3.36 W/m K

Glass to tedlar with duct

hp1
hp2
KT
LT
UT
UtT
UL,GT
Ubf,a

0.898
0.54
0.033 W/m K
0.0005 m
66 W/m2 K
6.68 W/m2 K
4.42 W/m2 K
0.62 W/m2 K

Glass to glass without duct

Ub

3.23 W/m2 K

Glass to glass withduct

Glass to tedlar withduct

Glass to glass without duct

Glass to tedlar without duct

12.0
11.0
10.0
9.0
8.0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)
Fig. 3. Hourly variation of electrical efciency considering with and without duct.

Efficiency (Glass to glass)

Efficiency (Glass to tedlar)

Cell temp. (Glass to glass)

Cell temp. (Glass to tedlar)

12.0

90.0

11.5

80.0

11.0

70.0

10.5
60.0

10.0

50.0

9.5

40.0

9.0
8.5

Cell temperature,C

Values

b
ho
L
_a
m
Ca
Utc,a

Eletrical efficiency, %

Parameters

Fig. 2. Hourly variation of solar intensity and ambient temperature for the month
of April, 2008.

Electrical Efficiency, %

Table 1
Design parameters of glass to glass and glass to tedlar, with and without duct of PV
modules

30.0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)
Fig. 4. Hourly variation of electrical efciency and cell temperature considering
with duct.

702

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

With Duct (Glass to Glass)

12.0

e= 3.92
r = 0.838

Theoretical
Experimental

12.0

11.0

10.0

9.0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

Without Duct (Glass to Glass)

Electrical Efficiency, %

Electrical Efficiency, %

Theoretical

e= 4.19
r = 0.827

Experimental
11.0
10.0
9.0
8.0

16:00

09:00

10:00

11:00

With Duct (Glass to Tedlar)

12.0

Theoretical

Electrical Efficiency, %

Electrical Efficiency, %

e= 3.41
r= 0.806

Experimental
11.0

10.0

9.0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)

Time (Hours)

14:00

15:00

Without Duct (Glass to Tedlar)

12.0

e= 3.87
r= 0.849

Theoretical
Experimental

11.0
10.0
9.0
8.0
09:00

16:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)

Time (Hours)

Fig. 5. (a) Hourly variation of electrical efciency considering with duct. (b) Hourly variation of electrical efciency considering without duct. (c) Hourly variation of electrical
efciency considering with duct. (d) Hourly variation of electrical efciency considering without duct.

decrease in efciency of module. In case B and D (modules without

duct) efciency is nearly same. Hourly variation of electrical

V = 0.5 m/s (GG)

V = 0.5 m/s (GT)

V = 1 m/s (GG)

V= 1 m/s (GT)

V= 2 m/s (GG)

V= 2 m/s (GG)

a type
b type

75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35

c type
d type

12.0

11.0

10.0

9.0
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)

b
Daily avg. electrical efficiency, %

Avg. air temperature,C

The variation of solar intensity and ambient temperature for a

typical day in the month of April 2008 for New Delhi condition is
shown in Fig. 2. The values of various parameters (design parameters) of PV modules are given in Table 1. In this paper, the results of
the four cases, case A (Glass to glass PV module with duct), case B
(Glass to glass PV module without duct), case C (Glass to tedlar PV
module with duct), case D (Glass to tedlar PV module without
duct) are discussed in details.
Experimental electrical efciency of PV module for all the four
cases are evaluated by using Eq. (15) and the variations are shown
in Fig. 3. Glass to glass type PV module with duct gives higher efciency than the glass to tedlar type PV module. This is due to the
radiation falling on non-packing area of glass to glass module is
transmitted through the glass cover, however, in case of glass to
tedlar all the radiation is absorbed by the tedlar and then heat is
carried away by the conduction. So that the temperature of the solar cell is higher in case of glass to tedlar type PV module, result in

Electrical Efficiency, %

3. Result and discussion

12.0
11.17
11.0

10.0

10.65

9.73

9.86

9.0
Type a

Type b

Type c

Type d

Weather conditions
09:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

13:00

14:00

15:00

16:00

Time (Hours)
Fig. 6. Hourly variation of average air temperature over the length of duct by
varying the mass ow rate; glass to glass (GG) and glass to tedlar (GT).

Fig. 7. (a) Hourly variation of electrical efciency for a, b, c, d type weather

conditions considering glass to glass PV module with duct. (b) Daily average of
electrical efciency for a, b, c, d type weather conditions considering glass to glass
PV module with duct.

703

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

a
Monthly avg. electrical efficiency, %

11.0

Annual Avg. = 10.41 %

10.5

10.0

9.5

9.0
JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

Month of year

b
Monthly avg. electrical efficiency, %

10.5

Annual Avg. = 9.75 %

10.0

9.5

9.0

8.5

8.0
JAN

FEB

MAR

APR

MAY

JUN

JUL

AUG

SEP

OCT

NOV

DEC

Month of year
Fig. 8. (a) Monthly average of electrical efciency considering a, b, c, d type weather conditions for glass to glass PV module with duct. (b) Monthly average of electrical
efciency considering a, b, c, d type weather conditions for glass to glass PV module without duct.

efciency and cell temperature for case A and case B with duct
are shown in Fig. 4. Figure shows that as the temperature increases efciency decreases and as the temperature decreases efciency increases, as expected. This result is in accordance with the
results reported by earlier researchers, Zondag et al. [15] and
Chow [16].
Eqs. (5) and (6) has been used for calculating the theoretical
efciency of glass to glass type PV module with and without duct.
Experimental results are validated with the theoretical results and
the variations are shown in Fig. 5a and b. Similarly, Eqs. (12) and
(14) has been used for calculating the theoretical efciency of glass
to tedlar type PV module with and without duct. The variations between experimental and theoretical results are shown in Fig. 5c
and d. The correlation coefcient (r) and root mean square percent
deviation (e) is also evaluated using Eqs. (16a) and (16b), respectively which are shown in the same gure. It is observed that there
is a fair agreement between theoretical and experimental values of
all the four cases. The correlation coefcient (r) and root mean
square percent deviation (e) is varies from 4.19 to 3.41 and 0.849
to 0.806, respectively.
Eqs. (4b) and (11b) has been used for evaluating the average air
temperature over the length of air duct by varying the mass ow
rate for case A and case C. It is observed that the average air temperature is higher in case of A than case C, due to the solar radiation is transmitted through the glass cover (non-packing area)
and absorbed by the blackened plate (below the module). In this
case the heat is convected to the owing air by two ways from back

surface of PV module as well as from top surface of the blackened

plate. The variation is shown in Fig. 6.
Hourly variation of electrical efciency of glass to glass type PV
module with duct for a, b, c, and d type weather conditions is shown
in Fig. 7a. Figure shows that as the solar intensity decreases (from a
type to d type) the temperature of solar cell is also decreases and
efciency increases. The same results are also obtained for daily
average efciency of a, b, c, and d type weather conditions which
is shown in Fig. 7b. Monthly average electrical efciency by considering a, b, c, d type weather conditions of New Delhi for glass to
glass type PV module with and without duct are calculated and
the variation is shown in Fig. 8a and b. The annual average efciency of PV module with and without duct is 10.41% and 9.75%,
respectively. The monthly average efciency is calculated by multiplying the number of days belongs to each type of weather condition of that month and taking the average of all days of that
month. And then the average of 12 months gives the annual average
efciency of PV module.

4. Conclusion
1. In this paper, four different congurations of two types of PV
modules, glass to glass and glass to tedlar are studied.
2. The percentage difference between electrical efciency (Dg) of
glass to glass and glass to tedlar type PV modules with and
without duct are 0.24% and 0.086%, respectively.

704

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

3. The percentage difference between electrical efciency (Dg)

of glass to glass type PV modules with and without duct is
0.66%.
4. This 0.66% difference of electrical efciency could be very large
if it is used in large PV plants and simultaneously fullling the
requirement of electricity generation and thermal heating with
better efciency.

Appendix A

(iv) Glass to tedlar PV module without duct:

asGT;eff sg ac bc aT 1  bc 

U tc;a

Lg
1

K g ho

1

ho 5:7 3:8V; V 0:5 m=s


1
LT
1

Ub
K T hi
hi 2:8 3v;

v 0:2 m=s

In modelling equations, we used following relations for dening

the design parameters, which are shown in Table 1.
(i) Glass to glass PV module with duct:

The values of ac, aT, bc, go, ap and sg are taken from Dufe and
Beckman [30], Tiwari [31] and Tiwari and Sodha [32].

asGG;eff hp1 as1;eff hp2 as2;eff

References

Here, as1;eff sg ac bc 1  g and as2;eff ap 1  bc s2g . hp1

and hp2 is the penalty factors due to glass cover of PV module,
which are dened as

hp;f
U Tc;f
and hp2
U tc;a U Tc;f
U p;a hp;f

1
Lg
1

K g ho

hp1
U tc;a

ho 5:7 3:8V; V 0:5 m=s


1
Lg 1

U Tc;f
K g hi
hp;f hi 2:8 3v;
U Tc;f  U tc;a
U tT
U Tc;f U tc;a
U bp;a  hp;f
UT
U bp;a hp;f

v 2 m=s

U L;GG U tT U T
(ii) Glass to glass PV module without duct:



asGG;eff sg ac bc sg 1  bc

U tc;a

Lg
1

K g ho

1

ho 5:7 3:8V; V 0:5 m=s


1
Lg 1

Ub
K g hi
hi 2:8 3v;

v 0:2 m=s

(iii) Glass to tedlar PV module with duct:

asGT;eff sg ac bc aT 1  bc  ac gbc 
hp1 and hp2 is the penalty factors due to glass cover and tedlar of
T
and hp2 Utc;ahThT
PV module, which are dened as, hp1 Utc;aUU
T

U tc;a

Lg
1

K g ho

1

ho 5:7 3:8V;
 1
LT
UT
KT

V 0:5 m=s

hT 2:8 3v; v 2 m=s

U tc;a  U T
U tT
U tc;a U T
U tT  hT
U t;f
U tT hT
U L;GT U t;f U bf;a

[1] Kern Jr. EC, Russell MC. Combined photovoltaic and thermal hybrid collector
systems. In: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE photovoltaic specialists, Washington,
DC, USA, 1978. p. 11537.
[2] Hendrie SD. Evaluation of combined photovoltaic/thermal collectors. In:
Proceedings of international conference ISES, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, May 28
June 1, vol. 3. 1979. p. 18659.
[3] Florschuetz LW. Extention of the HottelWhillier model to the analysis of
combined photovoltaic/thermal at plate collectors. Sol Energy
1979;22:3616.
[4] Raghuraman P. Analytical predictions of liquid and air photovoltaic/thermal,
at-plate collector performance. J Sol Energy Eng 1981;103:2918.
[5] Cox III CH, Raghuraman P. Design considerations for at-plate photovoltaic/
thermal collectors. Sol Energy 1985;35:22741.
[6] Lalovic B. A hybrid amorphous silicon photovoltaic and thermal solar collector.
Solar Cells 1986/1987;19:1318.
[7] Loferski JJ, Ahmad JM, Pandey A. Performance of photovoltaic cells
incorporated into unique hybrid photovoltaic/thermal panels of a 2.8 kW
residential solar energy conversion system. In: Proceedings of 1988 annual
meeting, American Solar Energy Society, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA,
1988. p. 42732.
[8] Garg HP, Adhikari RS. Conventional hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) air
heating collectors: steady-state simulation. Renew Energy 1997;11:36385.
[9] Hegazy AA. Comparative study of the performances of four photovoltaic/
thermal solar air collectors. Energy Convers Manage 2000;41:86181.
[10] Sopian K, Liu HT, Kakac S, Veziroglu TN. Performance of a double pass
photovoltaic thermal solar collector suitable for solar drying systems. Energy
Convers Manage 2000;41(4):35365.
[11] Kalogirou SA. Use of TRYNSYS for modelling and simulation of a hybrid PV
thermal solar system for Cyprus. Renew Energy 2001;23:24760.
[12] Lee WM, Ineld DG, Gottschalg R. Thermal modelling of building integrated PV
systems In: Proceedings of 17th PV solar energy conference. Munich, 2226
October, 2001. p. 27547.
[13] Chow TT, Hand JW, Strachan PA. Building-integrated photovoltaic and thermal
applications in a subtropical hotel building. Appl Therm Eng
2003;23:203549.
[14] Jones AD, Underwood CP. A thermal model for photovoltaic systems. Sol
Energy 2001;70(4):34959.
[15] Zondag HA, de Vries DW, van Helden WGJ, van Zolengen RJC, Steenhoven AA.
The yield of different combined PVthermal collector designs. Sol Energy
2003;74(3):25369.
[16] Chow TT. Performance analysis of photovoltaicthermal collector by explicit
dynamic model. Sol Energy 2003;75:14352.
[17] Al-Mohamad A. Efciency improvements of photo-voltaic panels using a suntracking system. Appl Energy 2004;79:34554.
[18] Zhou W, Yang H, Fang Z. A novel model for photovoltaic array performance
prediction. Appl Energy 2007;84:118798.
[19] Tiwari A, Sodha MS, Chandra A, Joshi JC. Performance evaluation of
photovoltaic thermal solar air collector for composite climate of India. Sol
Energy Mater Sol Cells 2006;90(2):17589.
[20] Tripanagnostopoulos Y. Aspects and improvements of hybrid photovoltaic/
thermal solar energy systems. Sol energy 2007;81:111731.
[21] He W, Chow TT, Ji J, Lu J, Pei G, Chan L. Hybrid photovoltaic and thermal solarcollector designed for natural circulation of water. Appl Energy
2006;83:199210.
[22] Hamdy MA, Beshir ME, Elmasry SE. Reliability Analysis of Photovoltaic
Systems. Appl Energy 1989;33:25363.
[23] Ji J, Chow TT, Pei G, He W, He H. Performance analysis of a photovoltaic heat
pump. Appl Energy 2008;85:68093.
[24] Muntasser MA, Bara MF, Quadri HA, EL-Tarabelsi R, La-azebi IF. Photovoltaic
marketing in developing countries. Appl Energy 2000;65:6772.
[25] Zondag HA. Flat-plate PVthermal collectors and systems: a review. Renew
Sustain Energy Rev 2008;12(4):891959.
[26] Dubey S, Tiwari GN. Thermal modelling of a combined system of photovoltaic
thermal (PV/T) solar water heater. Sol Energy 2008;82:60212.

S. Dubey et al. / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 697705

[27] Schott T. Operational temperatures of PV modules. In: Proceedings of 6th PV
solar energy conference, 1985. p. 3926.
[28] Evans DL. Simplied method for predicting PV array output. Sol Energy
1981;27:55560.
[29] Tiwari A, Sodha MS. Parametric study of various congurations of hybrid PV/
thermal air collector: experimental validation of theoretical model. Sol Energy
Mater Sol Cells 2007;91:1728.

705

[30] Dufe JA, Beckman WA. Solar engineering of thermal processes. New
York: John Wiley & Sons; 1991.
[31] Tiwari GN. Solar energy fundamentals, design, modelling and
applications. New Delhi: Narosa Publishing House; 2004.
[32] Tiwari A, Sodha MS. Performance evaluation of solar PV/T system: an
experimental validation. Sol Energy 2006;80(7):7519.