Application of Nanofluids for Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) Collectors: A Review

Abstract

Nanofluids have received considerable attention in the past decades. Nanofluid is produced by dispersing nanoparticles into a base fluid with a typical size of less than 100 nm in a liquid. Nanofluids have been proposed as a replacement for conventional cooling fluid because of their enhanced thermal properties. This review presents descriptions and previous works conducted on the performance analysis of nanofluid-based photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors. Results on the performance analyses of nanofluid-based PVT collectors are summarised. The use of nanofluid as a heat transfer fluid in PVT collectors shows enhanced performance. The performance of nanofluids-based PVT collector will increase in terms of overall efficiency compared with conventional fluids. Thus, small and compact nanofluid-based PVT collectors can be manufactured, thereby reducing the weight, energy and cost of manufacturing.