The efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) cell reduces with an increase in solar irradiation. The reduction in the efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) cell can be attributed to the increase in cell temperature. A novel design of a thermal absorber fabricated by a flat spiral tube is used to remove heat and decrease the cell temperature, thus forming the photovoltaic thermal system (PVTS). Water and titanium oxide (TiO2) nanofluid (NF) with a concentration ratio of 0.1% are used as the working fluid in the PVTS. The study has been carried out for the mass flow rates (mf) of 0.05, 0.066, and 0.083 kg/s. The reduction in the cell temperature is obtained to be 5.7 and 11.2 °C due to the cooling effect of water and TiO2 NF, respectively. The percentage increase in electrical efficiency is 2.93 and 5.28% by cooling using water and TiO2 NF, respectively. The hourly variation of the performance of the PVTS shows that TiO2 NF at 0.083 kg/s shows the highest photovoltaic thermal efficiency of 69.2% and thermal and electrical efficiency of 56.45 and 12.75%, respectively. The best coefficient of energy for TiO2 NF is 1.27 for a mf of 0.083 kg/s.
Keywords: Cell temperature; Electrical efficiency; Flattened tube; Flow rate; Photovoltaic thermal system.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.