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Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems
Spectral splitting is an approach to the design of hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collectors that promises significant performance benefits. However, the ultimate efficiency limits, optimal PV cell materials and optical filters of spectral-splitting PVT (SSPVT) collectors remain unclear, with a l...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7862645/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33542174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00465-1 |
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author | Huang, Gan Wang, Kai Markides, Christos N. |
author_facet | Huang, Gan Wang, Kai Markides, Christos N. |
author_sort | Huang, Gan |
collection | PubMed |
description | Spectral splitting is an approach to the design of hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collectors that promises significant performance benefits. However, the ultimate efficiency limits, optimal PV cell materials and optical filters of spectral-splitting PVT (SSPVT) collectors remain unclear, with a lack of consensus in the literature. We develop an idealized model of SSPVT collectors and use this to determine their electrical and thermal efficiency limits, and to uncover how these limits can be approached through the selection of optimal PV cell materials and spectral-splitting filters. Assuming that thermal losses can be minimized, the efficiency limit, optimal PV material and optimal filter all depend strongly on a coefficient w, which quantifies the value of the delivered thermal energy relative to that of the generated electricity. The total (electrical plus thermal) efficiency limit of SSPVT collectors increases at higher w and at higher optical concentrations. The optimal spectral-splitting filter is defined by sharp lower- and upper-bound energies; the former always coincides with the bandgap of the cell, whereas the latter decreases at higher w. The total effective efficiency limit of SSPVT collectors is over 20% higher than those of either standalone PV modules or standalone ST collectors when w is in the range from 0.35 to 0.50 and up to 30% higher at w ≈ 0.4. This study provides a method for identifying the efficiency limits of ideal SSPVT collectors and reports these limits, along with guidance for selecting optimal PV materials and spectral-splitting filters under different conditions and in different applications. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7862645 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78626452021-02-16 Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems Huang, Gan Wang, Kai Markides, Christos N. Light Sci Appl Article Spectral splitting is an approach to the design of hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) collectors that promises significant performance benefits. However, the ultimate efficiency limits, optimal PV cell materials and optical filters of spectral-splitting PVT (SSPVT) collectors remain unclear, with a lack of consensus in the literature. We develop an idealized model of SSPVT collectors and use this to determine their electrical and thermal efficiency limits, and to uncover how these limits can be approached through the selection of optimal PV cell materials and spectral-splitting filters. Assuming that thermal losses can be minimized, the efficiency limit, optimal PV material and optimal filter all depend strongly on a coefficient w, which quantifies the value of the delivered thermal energy relative to that of the generated electricity. The total (electrical plus thermal) efficiency limit of SSPVT collectors increases at higher w and at higher optical concentrations. The optimal spectral-splitting filter is defined by sharp lower- and upper-bound energies; the former always coincides with the bandgap of the cell, whereas the latter decreases at higher w. The total effective efficiency limit of SSPVT collectors is over 20% higher than those of either standalone PV modules or standalone ST collectors when w is in the range from 0.35 to 0.50 and up to 30% higher at w ≈ 0.4. This study provides a method for identifying the efficiency limits of ideal SSPVT collectors and reports these limits, along with guidance for selecting optimal PV materials and spectral-splitting filters under different conditions and in different applications. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-02-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7862645/ /pubmed/33542174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00465-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Huang, Gan Wang, Kai Markides, Christos N. Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title | Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title_full | Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title_fullStr | Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title_full_unstemmed | Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title_short | Efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solar collectors and systems |
title_sort | efficiency limits of concentrating spectral-splitting hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (pv-t) solar collectors and systems |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7862645/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33542174 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-021-00465-1 |
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