Appropriate Solar Spectrum Usage: The Novel Design of Photovoltaic Thermal System (OR-16-C084)

The path towards zero energy buildings is fraught with many challenges, the onsite renewable energy production to drive consumer appliances that are not low or zero energy is an important challenge. Therefore, developing the energy production such that the production mode is matched to the usage is the simplest manner to improve efficiency.  As such, energy consumption for lighting could be significantly reduced by optimizing the building`s design to maximize direct daylight usage, similarly cooking using solar stoves, or water heating using solar geysers, reduce the need for PV cells electricity. The most important energy consumption in most buildings is HVAC (which accounts for approximately 40% of a building`s energy consumption) which can be addressed with the use of a solar power absorption chiller. This article introduces a design of a novel solar concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) system that produces electricity and thermal energy simultaneously from the same surface area.