Optimal Design and Performance Analysis of a Low Concentrating Photovoltaic/Thermal System Using the Direct Absorption Collection Concept

This paper presents an optimized Concentrating Photovoltaic/Thermal system based on the direct absorption collection concept. In this system, working fluid water and solar cell separately utilizes solar radiation at different wavelengths to achieve photothermal conversion and photoelectric conversion. The system avoids the complicated fabrication technique in conventional CPV/T systems. The thermal unit has no temperature limitation from the PV module. As the incident solar irradiance increases from 800 W/m² to 3,600 W/m², the system can produce high grade heat, almost without sacrificing electrical efficiency (around 8.9% to 10.4%), and the total exergetic efficiency of the system increases from 12.8% to 18.4%.