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Solar photovoltaics are between 8-15% efficient and much of the sun’s energy’s is lost as heat. While solar thermal systems offer a way to harvest this heat energy for heating water or interior spaces, this option has usually displaced the electricity generating PV on rooftops. A new system from SolarWall, the SolarDuct PV/T, offers a combination of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal in one assembly providing a means to heat and power from the sun with one product.

The SolarWall PV thermal (PV/T) co-generation system was recently tested at the Canadian National Solar Test Facility in conjunction with the International Energy Agency Task 35.  The results documented that adding a solar thermal component to a PV array boosts the total solar efficiency to over 50%, compared with 10 to 15% efficiency for most PV modules alone. The heat from the PV panels, captured by the SolarWall perforated absorber, was documented to be three times more than the electrical energy generated from the PV modules.

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