Thermal Performance Analysis of Dual-Axis Tracking Photovoltaic/Thermal Cogeneration System

In this paper, the thermal performance of the dual-axis tracking photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) cogeneration system is studied. Firstly, the performance of the low-concentrating PV/T system with different tracking modes is explored. The energy output characteristics of the single-axis tracking system and the dual-axis tracking system in different axes are compared. Under the four typical weather conditions, the average electrical energy of the dual-axis tracking system is 35%, 28%, 31%, and 36.6% higher than that of the east-west single-axis tracking system, respectively. It can be seen that the performance of the dual-axis tracking system is superior to that of the single-axis tracking system. Secondly, a dual-axis tracking PV/T cogeneration system model under all operating conditions is constructed. The simulation data illustrates that the low-concentrating PV/T system can provide 4 times the amount of thermal energy while electrical energy. As a final remark, the low-concentrating dual-axis tracking PV/T system has good cogeneration performance.