Performance enhancement of PV/T system using hybrid nanoparticles.

Solar PV installations have increased around the globe due to national commitment to increase renewable share to tackle issues of climate change, security of supply and affordability. However, the maximum photovoltaic conversion efficiency achieved till now is around 30% (Green et al., 2020), which indicates that about 70% of the incident solar radiation is unutilized. The PV cell efficiency is observed to decrease by 0.4% for a 1º C rise in cell temperature (Sahay, Sethi, and Tiwari, 2013). Hence, a hybrid PV/T system consisting of photovoltaic and thermal system came to existence with the objective of cogeneration of electrical power and thermal energy. A thermal absorber will be attached to the back side of PV to facilitate the heat transfer and hence cooling the PV module. However, the disadvantage faced by PV/T system is the poor heat transfer capability of the conventional working fluids (like water, ethylene glycol, etc.). Previous research (Choi and Eastman, 1995) confirms that nanofluids created by the addition of nanoparticles in base fluids, was found to be possessing better thermal conductivity and heat transfer capability than the conventional fluids. Hence the opportunity to modify the properties of working fluid with the addition of nanoparticle makes it an interesting field of study. In this study, nanofluid with higher thermal conductivity (for heat transfer), lower viscosity (to reduce the pumping power) and better stability would be synthesized which have not been studies previously for such application. Hence, nanofluid based PV/T system is a greener and renewable sustainable solution.