A numerical and experimental analysis of a novel highly-efficient water-based PV/T system.

New materials and designs have been developed and proposed to enhance the thermal and electrical performance of photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) systems in recent years. Despite the significant attention received by PV/T technology, the available PV/T modules are scarce due to complex system designs, environmentally unfriendly working fluids, and low thermal efficiency. In this paper, a highly efficient water-based PV/T system is proposed by combining an innovatively designed cooling system with a PV module. An experimental evaluation of the designed PV/T system was carried out in laboratory conditions. The test results of the PV/T system showed that when the inlet mass flow rate and temperature were 0.0458 kg/s and 11.90 °C, the PV/T system reached the maximum thermal efficiency of 96.47 ± 1.40 %. The increase in mass flow rate from 0.0042 kg/s to 0.0375 kg/s and the decrease in inlet temperature from 17.70 °C to 11.40 °C led to a 12 % improvement in thermal efficiency of the PV/T system showing that the inlet mass flow rate and temperature have a significant influence on thermal efficiency. The developed 3-D numerical model accurately estimated the outlet temperature of the PV/T system. A maximum of 3.43 % error occurred between the experimental results and model output. • The paper proposes a novel, highly efficient, state-of-the-art PV/T system. • The designed PV/T system achieves a maximum thermal efficiency of 96.47 ± 1.40 %. • The designed cooling system reduces the PV module temperature by 40.72 °C. • The electrical conversion efficiency of the PV module is enhanced by 18.32 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]