STEP Solar Thermal Electric Panel
Purpose
The idea of hybridizing a solar electric panel with a solar thermal panel in not new but it has not been explored to its full possibilities. There is very little data about such systems even though the theory behind them is sound. For a fixed area the hybrid panel would convert more energy than the two separate panels. This is true because solar electric panels are only around 12% efficient, on average, the rest of the energy that is not converted into electricity with be converted to heat. With the hybrid system that heat is used to heat water.
Figure 1: STEP System -- Cutaway
The hybrid panel we developed, which we named the solar thermal electric panel (STEP), is a standing seam copper roof with three channels for copper piping. The PV panel is self-adhesive and lies down in the standing seam roof over the copper pipes in their channels. There are extra bends at the top of the pan to facilitate the glazing of the collector. The glazing is needed to trap the suns radiation thus amplifying the heat, via the greenhouse effect, inside the collector. Figure 1 shows the cutaway view of the STEP collector.
The objective is to quantify the results of solar hybridization. The exploration of factors that can affect output should be studied to obtain a better understanding of a hybridized solar system. The factors explored in this study are differing conditions such as cloudy vs. sunny weather, stagnation of the thermal system, the effect of ambient outdoor temperature and how the system performs without glazing.