RICRI Research Seminar: Advanced Solar PV-X Multigeneration Technologies – Towards a New Frontier

PV modules are typically less than 20% efficient at converting sunlight into electricity; the remainder heats the modules, causing a deterioration in efficiency, while ultimately being lost as waste heat to the environment. These inefficiencies have motivated the development of ‘hybrid’ PV-thermal (PV-T) collector technology, which combines PV cells with a cooling fluid flow – recovering heat from the cells and delivering a useful thermal output, while simultaneously cooling the cells and increasing their electrical efficiency.

In this talk, we will present conventional and advanced hybrid PV-T collector designs along with their underpinning operational principles, discuss the challenges and opportunities of further developing these technologies, and of integrating them within wider solar-energy systems for the affordable provision of cooling, heating and power. We will also propose a new concept that we refer to as ‘PV-X’ solar collectors, which harness additional performance benefits when novel processes are integrated synergistically within the collector.