Advancing performance assessment of a spectral beam splitting hybrid PV/T system with water-based SiO₂ nanofluid

Abstract

Spectral beam split is attracting more attention thanks to the efficient use of whole spectrum solar energy and the cogenerative supply for electricity and heat. Nanofluids can selectively absorb and deliver specific solar spectra, making various nanofluids ideal for potential use in hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) systems for solar spectrum separation. Clarifying the effects of design parameters is extremely beneficial for optimal frequency divider design and system performance enhancement. The water-based SiO₂ nanofluid with excellent thermal and absorption properties was proposed as the spectral beam splitter in the present study, to improve the efficiency of a hybrid PV/T system. Moreover, a dual optical path method was applied to get its spectral transimissivity and analyze the impact of its concentration and optical path on its optical properties. Furthermore, a PV and photothermal model of the presented system was built to investigate the system performance. The result indicates that the transimissivity of the nanofluids to solar radiation gradually decreases with increasing SiO₂ nanofluid concentration and optical path. The higher nanofluid concentration leads to a lower electrical conversion efficiency, a higher thermal conversion efficiency, and an overall system efficiency. Considering the overall efficiency and economic cost, the optimal SiO₂ nanofluid concentration is 0.10 wt.% (wt.%, mass fraction). Increasing the optical path (from 0 to 30 mm) results in a 60.43% reduction in electrical conversion efficiency and a 50.84% increase in overall system efficiency. However, the overall system efficiency rises sharply as the optical path increases in the 0–10 mm range, and then slowly at the optical path of 10–30 mm. Additionally, the overall system efficiency increases first and then drops upon increasing the focusing ratio. The maximum efficiency is 51.93% at the focusing ratio of 3.

Key words： full-spectrum solar energy; photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) system; water-based nanofluid; system efficiency

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFE0208300), and the Multi-input Key Project of the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. 22JCZDJC00760), and Funded by the Science Research Project of Hebei Education Department, China (Grant No. CXY2024027).

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Notations

Abbreviations
AM1.5	Solar irradiance for air mass 1.5 W/m2
DI	Deionized water
HTF	Heat transfer fluid
PV	Photovoltaic
PV/T	Photovoltaic/thermal
SBS	Spectral beam splitting
TESPI	Thermal electric solar panel integration
Symbols
A	Area/m2
D	Cuvette thickness/mm
E	Energy
FF	Filling factor of solar cells
G	Intensity of sunlight exposure energy
I	Intensity of current/A
k	Empirical parameters of solar cells
K	Boltzmann constant
N	Number of batteries
P	Power/W
q	Electron quantity
r	Relative temperature coefficient
R	Resistance/Ω
T	transimissivity measurement/%
V	Voltage/V
x	Fluid thickness/mm
Greek letters
α	Absorption coefficient
δ	Temperature coefficient of power
λ	Wavelength/nm
τ	transimissivity/%
η	Coefficient
Subscripts
air, cuv	Air–cuvette interface
c	Colorimetric dish
d	Dark
el	Electricity
fl	Fliud
flu, cuv	Fluid–cuvette interface
g0	Semiconductor bandwidth gap
i	Intensity
m	Maximum
n	Standard
oc	Open-circuit
p	Power plant
ph	Photogenerated
pv	Photovoltaic
ref	Referent
rs	Reverse saturation
s	Series
sc	Short-circuit
sh	Shunt
th	Thermal output
tot	Total
collector	Collector
0	Saturation
1	Liquid thickness of first cuvette
2	Liquid thickness of second cuvette

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