Experimental study on the performance of a solar photovoltaic/thermal system combined with phase change material

We present a comprehensive analysis of a solar photovoltaic/thermal system combined with phase change material, i.e., a PV/T-PCM system. A fatty acid was chosen as the PCM with a phase transition temperature of 37 °C. A solar collector filled with PCM, which contained rectangular metal fins to enhance heat transfer, was used to cool the PV. Four-day experimental measurements were carried out under real outdoor climatic conditions in Shanghai, China. During the experiment, we examined two different intermittent thermal regulation strategies using a water circulation loop in the PV/T-PCM system to improve the overall solar energy utilization efficiency, and detailed comparisons were performed. The results indicated that the use of PCM in the solar collector could significantly mitigate the temperature fluctuation of the PV panel and improve the photoelectric efficiency. Due to the low thermal conductivity of fatty acid, the temperature stratification in the solar collector was still significant even with the addition of metal copper fins. The thermal regulation strategy of setting the temperature at 45 °C gave better performance and the overall efficiencies of Case 1 and Case 3 could reach approximately 91%. The overall efficiency of Case 3 and Case 4 was approximately 85% with the thermal regulation strategy of setting the temperature at 50 °C. More heat could be removed from the PCM in the solar collector using the relatively low temperature setting of the thermal regulation strategy. It was concluded that the overall energy utilization ratio of the PV/T-PCM system can be improved through a reasonable thermal regulation strategy; however, further work on the economics analysis of the system is still needed.