Long-term environmental impacts of a small-scale spectral filtering concentrated photovoltaic-thermal system

•Gold nanoparticles in ethylene glycol with a volume fraction of 0.1% are used in the optical filter.•The system proposed can provide 2230.3 kWh of thermal energy per year.•The system can offset 1.3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per household.•This study demonstrates the feasibility of domestic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy conversion and management 2019-03, Vol.184, p.350-361
Main Authors: Rodrigues Fernandes, Marcelo, Schaefer, Laura A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon dioxide
Climatic conditions
Concentrated photovoltaic thermal
Dependence
Energy conversion
Environmental impact
Fossil fuels
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Households
Long-term analysis
Nanofluids
Optical filters
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaics
Solar energy
Solar energy conversion
Spectra
Spectral filtering
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Summary:•Gold nanoparticles in ethylene glycol with a volume fraction of 0.1% are used in the optical filter.•The system proposed can provide 2230.3 kWh of thermal energy per year.•The system can offset 1.3 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per household.•This study demonstrates the feasibility of domestic concentrated photovoltaic-thermal systems. Recent years have seen a sharp increase in the range and implementation of solar energy conversion systems, with the goal of reducing fossil fuel dependence. One example is a concentrated photovoltaic-thermal (CPV-T) system that uses nanofluid-based optical filters, which can generate electricity and absorb heat from sunlight. Although spectral filtering CPV-T systems have been explored in the literature for power generation, they have not been investigated for domestic applications. In this work, dynamic simulations of a small-scale spectral filtering CPV-T system under the climatic conditions of Tucson, Arizona, are performed. The long-term simulations indicate that the proposed CPV-T system can offset a total of 1.317 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year per household. If implemented in 10% of the households in the U.S., the total offset by the proposed system would be equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 3.19 million passenger vehicles per year.
ISSN:0196-8904
1879-2227
DOI:10.1016/j.enconman.2019.01.026