Energy and economic potential of a concentrated photovoltaic/thermal (CPV/T) system for buildings in South Korea

Abstract

In this study, a point focused concentrating photovoltaic (CPV/T) system is built and tested for building integration applications. The main focus of this research is to evaluate the economic viability of a CPV/T system as a replacement of electricity and natural gas for building heating. The performance of a CPV/T system for the top floor apartment heating was analyzed under very cold winter condition of South Korea. The apartment heating load was calculated via the EnergPlus® simulation software. The results show that for some months the CPV/T system can solely meet apartment heating requirements with zero auxiliary energy consumption. By utilizing a CPV/T system for apartment heating instead of using electricity and natural gas, the life cycle savings (LCS) were 2891 $ and 2370 $, respectively. It is also found that by considering 25 years of expected service life of the CPV/T system, its discounted payback period (DPP) based on electricity and natural gas were 12 and 15 years, respectively. It is concluded that the CPV/T system yield the best higher-energy saving efficiency and building heating performance.

Keywords

• point focused cpv/t
• economic feasibility
• building integration
• heating performance