Electrical and thermal performance analysis of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal water collector using meta-heuristic optimization

Abstract The photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) flat-panel technology has numerous advantages over PV modules and separately mounted solar thermal collectors regarding overall effectiveness and space-saving. Hybrid PV/T solar collectors’ thermal and electrical performance is influenced by design parameters like mass flow rate, tube diameter, tube spacing, packing factor, and absorber conductivity. This paper focused on using several meta-heuristic optimization techniques, incorporating the following: multiverse algorithm, dragonfly algorithm, sine–cosine algorithm, moth-flame algorithm, whale algorithm, particle swarm algorithm, ant-lion algorithm, grey wolf algorithm, and particle swarm optimization algorithm in PV/T collector optimal design according to maximum total efficiency obtained. The outcomes of the various algorithms revealed that the maximum electrical efficiency of the PV/T collector ranged from 13.85 to 14.28%, while the maximum thermal efficiencies ranged from 41.41 to 52.08% under standard test conditions (1000 W/m2 and 25 °C). The optimized values for the design parameters of the PV/T collector were as follows: the absorber conductivity was determined to be 356.6 W/m K, the packing factor was optimized to 0.7, the mass flow rate was set at 0.019 kg/s, the tube width was determined to be 0.035 m, and the tube spacing was optimized to 0.0524 m. The results indicated that the grey wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm proved to be highly effective in optimizing the design parameters of PV/T collectors. Furthermore, the study examined the relationship between the temperature of PV modules and PV/T collectors by considering variations in mass flow rate, packing factor, and tube width at different solar radiation levels. The results confirmed that the PV/T collector temperature exhibited improvements compared to the PV module temperature. As a result, this led to higher electrical efficiency and an overall increase in the total efficiency of the PV/T collector.