Volume 12: Low Carbon Cities and Urban Energy Systems: Part I

Detailed Responses to Reviewers Yingbo Zhang, Chao Shen*, Chunxiao Zhang

Abstract

This paper dealt with a series of numerical investigations on a new porous cooling channel applied to PV/T systems in order to improve the insufficient heat transfer in the conventional channel. The proposed porous cooling channel based on field synergy theory had a higher overall heat transfer coefficient, which enhanced the total efficiency of the PV/T system. The numerical model was validated with experimental data. The results showed that the total efficiency of the PV/T system with the new cooling channel was 4.17% higher than the conventional one at a solar radiation of 1000 W/m2 and an inlet mass flow rate of 0.01 kg/s. In addition, as the solar radiation increased from 300 to 1200 W/m2, the total efficiency of the new PV/T system dropped by 5.07%, which included reductions in both the electrical and thermal efficiency. In addition, the total efficiency of the PV/T system with the new cooling channel was 4% higher than that of the conventional cooling channel.

Keywords PV modules, Heat regulation, Field synergy theory, Cell temperature