Electrical energy analysis and optimization of single pass unglazed PVT system using evolutionary algorithm

In this paper effort has been made to optimize the overall electrical energy efficiency of a single pass unglazed PVT system. To accomplish this, the design parameter of the presented model has been optimized using an evolutionary algorithm. The equations relating to the system have been derived and the parameters influencing the overall electrical energy efficiency have been optimized, which is observed to be 20.81%. An improvement of 11.11% in the overall electrical energy efficiency has been observed in comparison with the model suggested by Agrwal and Tiwari [6]. The overall annual thermal and electrical gain also have been evaluated. It is observed that an overall annual thermal gain of the proposed single pass unglazed PVT system has been enhanced by 31.58%, 26.83%, 30.67% and 23.86%. While at the same time, the overall annual electrical gain of the proposed single pass unglazed PVT system has been increased by 14.29%, 16.67%, 14.81% and 8.18% over MCPVT module proposed by Agrawal and Tiwari [6] for New Delhi, Jodhpur, Srinagar and Bangalore respectively in the Indian climatic conditions. It is observed that the Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) is a very efficient technique to estimate the design parameters for a single pass unglazed photovoltaic thermal (SPUGPVT) system.