Numerical performance investigation of High Vacuum Flat Plate Hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal devices

We propose an innovative flat plate hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal system under high vacuum (HV PV-T) optimized for solar-to-thermal energy conversion. It consists of a glass cover, metallic vessel, and the actual PV-T device, which englobes a low-emissive Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO), a perovskite-based PV cell, a Solar Absorber, and a copper substrate. We investigate, through a 1-D model developed in MATLAB, the performances of the proposed PV-T system, still mined by radiative losses, varying the operating temperature (Top) and the emittance of the TCO (𝜀𝑇𝐶𝑂) in the ranges of (25÷175) °C and (0.05÷0.45) respectively. The annual thermal and electrical productions are evaluated considering the Typical Meteorological Year of Naples, Italy. Specific annual costs and emission savings are evaluated and compared with the ones assured by commercial High Vacuum Flat Plate Solar- Thermal (HVFP ST) and PV collectors. Results indicate that the proposed HV PV-T increases the annual cost savings by 34% and 11% when compared to HVFP ST and PV collectors, respectively. Moreover, the presented HV PV-T increases the annual CO2 emissions savings by 7% and 48% when compared to HVFP ST and PV collectors, respectively.