Field experimental test and performance analysis of a novel hybrid CdTe PV glass module integrated with phase change materials

In this study, a novel hybrid semi-transparent CdTe PV glass module integrated with a middle phase change materials (PCMs) layer is proposed and fabricated. Detailed fabrication process of the CdTe-PCM PV glass module (CdTe-PCMG) is illustrated. A field experimental test rig was constructed to evaluate and compare its comprehensive performance with the single CdTe PV glass (CdTe-SG). Several groups of continuous full-day experiments were conducted under different ambient condition days in Hefei. Main results are: (1) Utilization of PCM can effectively improve the PV module's electrical output, with an average daily increase ratio of 6.67% on the daily total electricity generation compared with SG among the ten investigated sunny days. Daily average ηe were respectively 7.63% and 8.31% for SG and PCMG; (2) PCM has realized effective cooling to the PV glass, with the maximum temperature differences between SG's and PCMG's external PV surface of 16.56 °C, 26.32 °C and 18.60 °C for the three groups of experiments. Average temperature decrement factors of the PCMG external surface were respectively 0.76, 0.72 and 0.67 compared with SG. This novel PCMG module has a promising application potential in energy-saving and indoor thermal comfort improvement when applied as building window.