Lego-style solar panels will crush your energy bill

Brunel University London will implement a £ 10 million renewable energy plan starting next month. 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 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.

This three-and-a-half-year multi-disciplinary project is funded by the "Horizon 2020" project and aims to perfect a flexible solar renewable energy system that can generate energy from hot water and electricity.

This hybrid solar panel combines photovoltaic cells and flat heat pipes. The heat pipe transfers excess heat from the surface. They are widely used in industry to recover waste heat and cooling: from personal computers to electronic equipment on the International Space Station, to prevent melting by solar radiation. PVadapt will use heat pipes to cool the photovoltaic cells themselves, making them more efficient and durable. The heat removed from the cooling system can be reused.

Professor Hussam Jouhara, the technical coordinator who invented the multifunctional flat heat pipe, said: "Our system does not waste heat."

He explained that this method focuses on low-cost, high-efficiency and modular prefabricated Lego-style building elements for buildings with near zero energy consumption.

PVadapt is a team of 18 organizations from 11 different countries. It will install hybrid solar roof panels in eight homes, offices and shops in Spain, Greece, Austria and Portugal.

Professor Jouhara and the Brunel team will combine all different technologies into the future prefabricated building integrated photovoltaic energy and heat storage system.

260 pounds per square meter of solar panels can be used in social housing, public buildings and offices, even in developing countries and non-grid areas. And those prefabricated parts that only need to be assembled on site mean that buildings using PVadapt technology can be upgraded quickly.

This hybrid energy system can solve a big problem: the more sunlight the solar photovoltaic panels absorb and the higher the temperature, the lower the efficiency of converting energy. This means that the more sunlight, the more heat they generate, but the less energy is converted into electricity. Heat pipes can use this heat to quickly remove the generated heat and use it to make hot water.

At present, there are some other practical problems that need to be solved for this hybrid panel. The record of installing solar panels in new buildings with ordinary roof structures is poor.

Professor Jouhara said that this requires a well-designed method. Our solar panels cover the most south-facing part of the roof and are designed as a weatherproof roof, as simple as building a Lego or laminate floor.

(Originally from: Daily Solar)

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