Operational performance of trigeneration PVT-assisted HP system

Trigeneration systems based on renewable energies are useful solutions to provide heat, cooling and electricity in buildings and industries. According to the International Energy Agency, more than 30% of the world population has a profile demand requiring heating and cooling and this percentage is above 70% in many developed countries. This paper experimentally evaluates the energy performance of a trigeneration system based on a solar PVT-assisted heat pump installed in an industrial building. The heat pump is a vapor compression air-to-water type, with a nominal capacity of 16 and 10.5 kW in heating and cooling respectively. The PVT solar field consists of unglazed PVT collectors with a total area of 13.6 m2. Results indicate that this type of system is effective to provide heat, cooling and electricity, using mainly solar energy. The PVT solar thermal fraction is significant to provide domestic hot water, but it is less representative in heating production. On the other hand, solar electrical production gets high representative contributions to feed the heat pump compressor. Different performance indicators were calculated to evaluate the system performance. Besides, a comparison with a reference system, that uses a PV instead of a PVT technology, was also evaluated.