Energy and exergy analysis of PV-T cooled with air and water for four different conditions

In this study, the energy and exergy analysis of a PV-T cooling with water and air were analyzed numerically under four different operating conditions and the results were compared. Analyzes were made to change solar radiation conditions for Case 1, real daily climatic conditions for Case 2, constant solar irradiance for Case 3, and the changing cooling mass flow rate for Case 4. Analyses of the system were performed using the Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The PV-T has an area of 0.54 m2 and the mass flow rate of the PV-T is 0.003 kg/s for both air and water under the first three conditions. As a result, PV-T's highest daily energy efficiencies reached 58.01% and 38.74% for water and air, while the highest exergy efficiencies reached 17.23% and 16.26%, respectively. When solar radiation changes from 100 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2, PV-T's highest energy efficiencies reached 58.96% and 41.76% for water and air, while the highest exergy efficiencies are 18.34% and 16.20%, respectively. By increasing the ambient temperature from 0 degrees C to 30 degrees C under 500 W/m2 of constant solar radiation, the highest energy efficiencies of PV-T reached 59.64% and 35.55% for water and air, while the highest exergy efficiencies are 18.90% and 16.09%, respectively. In addition, it was found that the daily electricity production of PV-T was 8.91% higher when cooled with water than with air. It was also found that when the cooling mass flow rate changes from 0.001 kg/s to 0.01 kg/s, the water-cooled PV-T produces more electricity than the air-cooled PV-T. Thus, PV-T is cooled by water, it performs better almost under all conditions than air and it produces more electricity.