Performance Analyses of a Trigenerative Plant Configuration for a WISC PVT Systems

Energy consumption for cooling of buildings is becoming increasingly important, with a great influence on the emission of polluting gases and the exploitation of energy resources. Air conditioning systems typically use compression cooling machines that consume a lot of energy. In virtuous buildings, the compression systems are powered by photovoltaic systems so as not to require additional energy from outside. Other technologies exploit solar thermal energy in absorption/adsorption machines to produce cooling energy. In both cases, “renewable energy” is obtained only during daytime hours, exploiting massive resources during the night hours. The photovoltaic/thermal panels allow the simultaneous production of thermal and electrical energy, still at the same time, if not glazed (WISC systems) they can produce cooling energy by exploiting radiative cooling during the night, thus allowing continuous production of cooling energy during the entire day. This study presents a patented highly efficient trigenerative photovoltaic thermal system (PVT), able to generate heating, cooling, and power. Using a mathematical model validated with experimental data obtained with a pilot plant, it is demonstrated that the extractable cooling power in each panel is about 50-60 W. The results show that this system allows for to production and storage of cooling energy more than 3°C less than the minimum air temperature that occurs during the night.