Simulation Study on Performance of Thermal Storage Solar Photovoltaic System

In recent years, the comprehensive utilization of solar photovoltaic (PV/T) technology is the current research focus. Water is a commonly used circulating fluid in PV/T collectors. A part of the heat of the heater, the temperature of the collector fluctuates greatly. In this case, latent heat energy storage methods provide a possible solution for collectors to store and release absorbed solar energy, and phase change materials are one of the methods for latent heat energy storage. In this paper, based on the rib-tube PV/T collector, the phase change material is combined with the rib-tube PV/T collector to design a phase-change thermal storage solar photovoltaic thermal collector (PCM-PV/T), using the sensible heat and latent heat of the phase change material to thermally manage the collector, so as to improve the photoelectric efficiency and overall efficiency of the collector. The results show that the addition of phase change materials can effectively reduce the temperature of photovoltaic cells. The maximum temperature difference of photovoltaic cells between PCM-PV/T and rib-tube PV/T collectors is 6.38 degrees C; Compared with the rib-tube PV/T collector, the efficiency and overall efficiency are improved to a certain extent. The cumulative photoelectric efficiencies of the PCM-PV/T collector and the rib-tube PV/T collector are 10.98% and 10.98%, respectively. 10.74%, the comprehensive efficiency is 54.76% and 47.8% respectively, the PCM-PV/T collector has greater practical application value.