Energetic, economic, and environmental comparative analysis of performance between PVT and PV/FPC systems in Morocco Available to Purchase

Morocco is a country with significant potential on solar energy and high ambition for the renewable energy transition. With a national plan to attain 40 000 m²/year of solar water heating panels installation and 1000 MWc of total photovoltaic power installation in the building sector by 2030, the country could be a highly attractive market for the Photovoltaic/Thermal (PVT) system for the latter’s simultaneous production of electrical and thermal energies. In this work, we focused on studying a hybrid PVT system performance under two different climatic zones of Morocco, namely Errachidia and Tangier, in comparison with a parallel Photovoltaic/Flat plate collector (PV/FPC) installation. Two simulation models were developed using TRNSYS18 software, where the dynamic electrical and thermal performances of the two studied systems were estimated, and then energy, economic and environmental analyses were carried out. The results have shown that the PV/FPC system is capable of outperforming the PVT system energetically, economically, and environmentally in the two studied climate zones. Nevertheless, the PVT system is still an important renewable alternative that can be considered to replace conventional energy resources, especially for projects with limited installation area and the need for the two types of energy, heat and electricity, such as the building sector in Morocco.