Brunel University in London will implement a £10 million renewable energy program starting next month, and researchers are developing a foldable hybrid solar panel that converts waste heat into hot water.
It is predicted that by 2050, the energy use of buildings will increase by one to three times, and most of the household energy is used for hot water. The PVadapt project is expected to solve several sustainable energy problems at the same time.
The three-and-a-half-year multidisciplinary project was funded by the 'Horizon 2020' project to refine a flexible solar renewable energy system that generates energy from hot water and electricity.
This hybrid solar panel combines photovoltaic cells and flat heat pipes. Heat pipes transfer excess heat from the surface. They are widely used in the industry to recover waste heat and cooling: from personal computers to electronic equipment on the International Space Station, to prevent being sunbed Radiation is melted. PVadapt will use heat pipes to cool the PV cells themselves, making them more efficient and longer lasting. The heat removed from the cooling system can be reused.
Professor Hussam Jouhara, technical coordinator of the invention of this multifunctional flat-panel heat pipe, said: 'Our system will not waste heat.'
He explained that this approach focuses on low-cost, high-efficiency and modular prefabricated LEGO building elements for buildings that are close to zero energy.
PVadapt is a team of 18 organizations from 11 different countries. It will install hybrid solar roof panels in 8 residences, offices and shops in Spain, Greece, Austria and Portugal.
Professor Jouhara and the Brunel team will combine all the different technologies into a future prefabricated building integrated photovoltaic energy and thermal storage system.
260 lbs per square metre of panels can be used for social housing, public buildings and offices, even in developing and non-grid areas. Prefabricated parts that only need to be assembled on site mean that buildings using PVadapt technology can be quickly upgrade.
This hybrid energy system can solve a big problem: The more sunlight the solar panels absorb, the higher the temperature, the lower the efficiency of converting energy. This means that the more sunlight, the more heat they generate, but the more The less energy the electric energy has. The heat pipe can use this heat to quickly take away the heat generated to make hot water.
At present, there are other practical problems to be solved in this hybrid panel. The record of installing solar panels in a new building with a common roof structure is poor.
Professor Jouhara said that this requires a well-designed approach. Our solar panels cover the most south-facing part of the roof, designed as a weatherproof roof, as simple as building Lego or laminate flooring.
