Design and performance evaluation of building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPVT) air collector

This paper addresses the design and performance evaluation of a novel building integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPVT) air collector that is augmented with a fin-type heat sink. The system performance is evaluated through a experimental measurement. Laminated with a fin heat sink, the BIPVT modules are designed for both solar electricity and thermal air collector that offer heat and power consumption of heat pump for space/water heating applications. This makes air stream effectively extract the recovered heat as thermal reuse and PV efficiency consequently enhanced with waste heat removal. The result of BIPVT air collector performance evaluation reveals that the efficiency can achieves up to 56%.