Experimental Investigation on Energy Performance of hybrid PV/T-PCM system

Photovoltaic (PV) energy is the most promising sustainable source but it depends on solar radiation and temperature. The PV panel electrical efficiency decrease because of rising temperature in the solar module. To overcome this particular problem the photovoltaic thermal (PV/T) a hybrid system can be a suitable technology and extracting heat and electricity from the same module to improve the overall efficiency. Another major limitation of those hybrid PV/T systems, those are only usable at daytime. Use phase change materials (PCM) in PV/T collectors as an intermediate thermal storage media offers a promising solution to this problem by storing large amount of heat. Lauric acid as PCM materials are used for thermal storage system. The PV/T-PCM hybrid system has been considered at parallel 2-side serpentine thermal absorber unique design with different water flow rates viz. 0.5, 1, 2, 3 & 4 liter per minutes (LPM) to get the enhanced performance of the system. These hybrid systems has been compared with a conventional solar PV module.