Experimental Analysis of a Building-Integrated Photovoltaic and thermal (BIPVT) Module with Detachable Phase Change Material (PCM) for Curtain Wall Applications

The increase in panel temperature in a photovoltaic thermal system (PVT) leads to a degradation of power generation performance, making it essential to suppress the module's temperature rise. This study developed a Building integrated photovoltaic thermal system (BIPVT-PCM) module with a phase change material (PCM) attached to the rear of a BIPVT module. This module has the advantage of a detachable PCM and can be easily installed on buildings in a curtain wall form. To ensure experimental accuracy, experiments were conducted in three phases during the winter. Phase 1 compared the power generation performance between Building integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV) modules, Phase 2 compared the thermal and power generation performance between BIPVT modules, and Phase 3 applied PCM to only one module to compare the performance of each module. The analysis results showed that the average electrical efficiency for both modules was 11.5%, with no significant performance improvement observed. The thermal efficiency decreased by 14.2% with the attachment of PCM. This was because although the heat generated during module operation was transferred to the PCM, the direct attachment method to the rear of the panel caused the transferred heat to reinfluence the panel's temperature. However, thermal imaging analysis showed that the PCM prevented a rapid increase in the panel's temperature. This indicates that while the PCM contributes to the temperature stabilization of the panel, its latent heat storage properties caused a delay in the heat recovery time, making it disadvantageous for real-time heat recovery. Therefore, directly attaching PCM to the rear of the BIPVT module is not effective for improving the module's thermal performance. This suggests that when applying PCM to a BIPVT, a design for an alternative attachment method is necessary