Comparative analysis of copper oxide (CuO)-based spiral flow photovoltaic sheet and tube thermal system

Abstract

The current work investigates experimental characteristics of the Photovoltaic Thermal system integrated with CuO-Water spiral flow heat exchanger and compared with non-cooled PV module. The work describes detailed procedure of Nanoparticles (NPs) preparation, SEM characterizations and heat extraction characteristics of Nanofluid (NFs) in PVT application. The heat exchanger was pasted at the back of polycrystalline PV module to form PVT system to examine cooling ability, power generation, thermal-electrical yield and overall efficiency at a different volume concentration of CuO NPs at steady mass flow rate of 0.08 kg/sec. From the experiments, it was concluded that the CuO-Water NFs assisted to lessen surface temperature of PV module by extracting heat that enhanced electrical efficiency by an average of 3.53%. It was also seen that electrical and thermal performance was improved at higher volume concentration and overall efficiency of 30.77% and 36.59 % were obtained at 0.01% and 0.03% of volume concentration.