Thermal Performance and Cost to Produce 90°C-Hot Water of Solar Thermal Collector and Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Collector Systems

The effects of types of collector systems, operation-control methods, and locations in the world on thermal performance of solar thermal collector systems and cost to produce required amount of 90°C-hot water were studied through numerical simulations. Also performance of a hybrid photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collector system was examined. Calculation results showed that the costs for all solar thermal collector systems were much less than that without solar thermal collector system. Effect of the locations in the word on the cost was large. Total energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of PVT system were lower than those of the solar thermal collector system. The cost for PVT system was higher than that for the solar thermal collector system.