Synergetic effects of passive cooling techniques on building integrated semi-transparent photovoltaic thermal systems

This paper presents a comprehensive analytical study of a building integrated semi-transparent photovoltaic thermal (BiSPVT) system integrated with two passive cooling techniques: hydronic cooling and thermal inertia. These strategies are designed to overcome the limitations of conventional BiSPVT systems in hot climates due to thermal heat buildup. This study develops energy balance equations for different system components and evaluates the performance enhancement through sensitivity analysis and parameter optimization. A comparative analysis is conducted between systems incorporating passive techniques and those without. The results after sensitivity analysis indicate that optimization leads to a 15.33% reduction in room temperature and an 8.12% improvement in solar cell electrical efficiency under New Delhi conditions. The novelty of this work lies in the synergistic application of hydronic and thermal inertia cooling techniques within a BiSPVT system along with a comprehensive computational parameter analysis, including time step test and input data precision test, which were conducted to validate the model's robustness and reliability. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was carried out based on which various parameters (packing factor, absorptivity, transmissivity, mass flow rate, and thermal inertia mass) are optimized, an area not extensively explored in the previous literature. The results are validated against experimental trends from the literature.