Modeling of a Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal Collector Based on Thin Film Solar Cells in Three Dimensions

Hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collectors are an emerging technology that combines photovoltaic and solar collectors by simultaneously producing heat and electricity. A researcher found to modelise different photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors using different configurations, where these collectors are based on monocrystalline silicon, furthermore we thought to study a PVT collector based on binary, ternary and quaternary materials used in thin films solar cells in order to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost. In this paper we studied a three-dimensional modeling of a hybrid PVT collector based on thin film solar cells (CIGS) by the Comsol 5.4 software. The results show that the temperature of the PVT collector reach a maximum value of the 95°C, the fluid flow velocity reach a value of 0.00275 m/s, the electrical current and power of the PVT collector are presented and analyzed.