Common solar photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collectors are unproductive at night and show low efficacy on hot days, while typical radiative cooling (RC) devices suffer from poor effectiveness in non-cooling seasons. In this context, this project proposes a novel idea of incorporating the RC scheme into a PV/T collector for combined solar energy and radiative cooling utilization. The developed novel collector, namely, RC-PV/T collector, runs as a solar PV/T collector to provide electricity and heat during the daytime and acts as an RC collector to harvest cooling energy during the nighttime.
Lighting, heating and cooling are essential for modern buildings, which has incurred a huge energy demand. In the EU, buildings consume around 40% of the total energy supply. To tackle this challenge, the EU has been endeavouring to implement effective policies and technologies for developing Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) and is actively seeking collaboration with countries and personnel worldwide to promote its scientific excellence and societal impact. Therefore, it is of significance and urgency to develop effective technology for providing part of the energy consumed in buildings by green, renewable alternatives such as solar energy and radiative cooling energy. By integrating the RC-PV/T collector with building envelops properly, this tri-functional collector can supply domestic electricity and hot water throughout the year, provide hot air for space heating in winter daytime, and collect cold air for space cooling in summer nighttime, thereby showing a multifunction in renewable energy harvesting and good seasonal adaptability. The integrated RC-PV/T collector can also be more cost-effective than stand-alone RC collectors. Therefore, the RC-PV/T technology can contribute to decarbonization in buildings.
The overall objective of this project is to develop a novel tri-functional RC-PV/T prototype which is superior to the mono-functional PV or PT collector, RC device and dual-functional PV/T collector. The scientific objectives are: (1) to carry out micro/nano structural design, optimization and manufacturing of the spectrally selective RC-PV/T coating; (2) to develop a computerized mathematic model for the use in characterization and optimization of the RC-PV/T collector; (3) to conduct field experiments of the RC-PV/T collector under different working conditions; (4) to numerically evaluate the RC-PV/T collector for building integrated applications; (5) to carry out economic and environmental assessment of the building integrated RC-PV/T (BiRC-PV/T) system.
