The Hybrid Energy Performance of a Water-Based PVT Collector with Twin Spiral Configuration
Received: 14 July 2025 | Revised: 8 August 2025 | Accepted: 20 August 2025 | Online: 6 October 2025
Corresponding author: Iwa Garniwa
Abstract
The increase of the Photovoltaic (PV) temperature can reduce the PV efficiency. However, with Photovoltaic Thermal Technology (PVT), the heat contained in the PV module can be utilized to produce useful heat, and at the same time enhance the PV electrical energy. In this research, the twin spiral configuration PVT collector performance is assessed. The surface temperature of the twin spiral configuration model PV module and the outlet water collector temperature in steady state are analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The temperatures are then used for calculating the PV electrical efficiency and solar collector thermal efficiency. With water flow variations between 0.01 kg/s and 0.05 kg/s, and solar intensities of 500 W/m², 600 W/m², 800 W/m², and 1000 W/m², the PVT performance was analyzed. This study shows that the electrical efficiency achieves its highest value of 15.43% at 500 W/m² irradiance intensity and 0.05 kg/s water flow, with an average PV module temperature of 33.86 °C. While the Thermal Efficiency (TEF) reaches its maximum value of 81.55% at the irradiance intensity of 1000 W/m² with 0.05 kg/s water flow, and the average water output temperature was 32.3 °C. In general, at solar intensity variations greater water flow contributes positively to the improvement of PV electrical and solar collector thermal efficiency.
Keywords:
photovoltaic temperature, computational fluid dynamics, twin spiral, electrical efficiency, Thermal efficiencyDownloads
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Copyright (c) 2025 Rudi Darussalam, Iwa Garniwa, Chairul Hudaya, Ahmad Fudholi
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