Exergetic and Enviroeconomic analysis of a novel PVT array with triangular duct for building application

Abstract

Photovoltaic/thermal air collector has potential to execute electrical and thermal energy concurrently. This paper investigates carbon dioxide mitigation and enviroeconomic analysis on basis of overall, energy and exergy gain of semi-transparent PVT (SPVT), and opaque PVT (OPVT) arrays under natural convection in Bikaner, Rajasthan (India). The analysis has been carried out on an array configuration of opaque and semi-transparent arrays having 7 modules connected in series. Experimental work has been done in the month of September to December and comparison has been made on the basis of electrical and thermal gains. The results depict that average electrical, thermal and overall exergy gain of SPVT array is higher by 9.20%, 15.2% and 8.08% with respect to OPVT array. The CO2 mitigation for four months for semi-transparent array is higher by 0.67 tCO2 and 0.15 tCO2 as compared to OPVT array on the basis of overall thermal energy and overall exergy gain respectively. The environmental cost of SPVT array is higher by Rs. 710.53 and Rs. 160.50 than OPVT array for four months with respect to overall thermal energy and overall exergy gain.