An article about the solar photovoltaic thermal hybrid systems research done by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) and his group was discussed in detail in the magazine Cogeneration.
From Tech Today.
Efficiency breakthrough in solar thermal cells
Earlier this year, Dr. Joshua Pearce and collaborators published the results of their groundbreaking research that holds out the promise of hybrid PV/T systems with significantly enhanced electrical efficiencies.
Conclusion: use thicker than normal a-Si i-layers in a PV/T system and you can get higher electrical efficiency. Bake the a-Si layers once a day and degradation under Staebler–Wronski is reversed by annealing. It would take 15 minutes to explain the temperature controls needed to do this, according to Dr. Pearce.
‘We also know intuitively that the higher the temperature of the solar thermal absorber, the higher the efficiencies for the solar thermal system,’ he adds. ‘With the electrical and thermal efficiency gains, we’re making two better mousetraps for the price of one.’
Read more in Cogeneration & On-Site Power Production.
Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) coauthored a paper on, “The Effect of Spectral Albedo on Amorphous Silicon and Crystalline Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Device Performance,” in Solar Energy.
From Tech Today.