Exergy analysis of a photovoltaic thermal system with earth water heat exchanger cooling system based on experimental data

Abstract

In this paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the experimental exergetic assessment of photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system with novel cooling technology termed as earth water heat exchanger (EWHE) cooling. The exergetic efficiency is calculated by considering of exergy destructions and exergy losses. It was observed that the total exergetic efficiency of PV/T is the function of mass flow rate of cooling water for a given solar radiation. The exergetic efficiency of the PV/T system is calculated in three ways, Case I: excluding exergy losses, Case II: including both exergy losses and exergy destructions and Case III: considering only exergy destructions. The results of all the cases were compared and it was found out that the exergetic efficiency of PV/T in Case III was more than the other two cases and it lies between 24.95% to 25.85% and 24.30% to 25.57% for the flow rate of 0.017 kg/s and 0.025 kg/s respectively.