Design & Development of a Novel PV-Fluid Hybrid Energy System

Embedded Generation has been described as a “paradigm shift” in the way in which electricity is produced with the focus of power production shifting away from large centralized generation plants to production of heat and power close to the point of use. An emerging technology that may play a part in the evolution of this new paradigm is the novel PV-Fluid hybrid system which can simultaneous produce electric and thermal power. The PV-Fluid System discussed here are PV-water and PV-air. To increase the electrical output, the system is further integrated with concentrators (V-Trough, Compound Parabolic Collector, Double booster Side mirror etc.). This paper will develop and test a simple mathematical model of above hybrid system. The different types of concentrated PV/Fluid which are fabricated are compared for their performance and cost. The result is that out of different PV-Fluid compared CPC-PV-Water is found to be most efficient although V-Trough-PV-Water hybrid energy system is cost effective. Further improvement in output is also discussed with the use of automatic and manual tracking. The advantages of PV-Fluid hybrid Energy systems are we can get simultaneous two powers; efficiency is increased, lesser cost, less space requirement, portable, reduced transmission/distribution losses and continuous power generation. The development of these PV-Fluid hybrid energy systems provides the scope for the local power production on the buildings and making the part of the home grid-independent.