Hybrid solar panel heats water while generating electricity

The technology, developed by Naked Energy’s chief engineer Richard Boyle, integrates an electricity-generating photovoltaic cell into a hot-water-generating solar thermal panel. The solar thermal panels are placed into vacuum tubes and are unaffected by ambient temperature.

Nick Simmons, chief financial officer of Naked Energy, told The Engineer: ‘We can create more useful energy per square metre than conventional panels on the market today.’

Through combining the two technologies, Boyle was able to address one of the fundamental problems facing photovoltaic cells.

‘When photovoltaic panels get hot they become less efficient. For every 1º rise in temperature [from 25°C], you lose half a percentage point of efficiency,’ said Simmons. ‘A very efficient photovoltaic panel has a maximum efficiency of approximately 18 per cent. But by the time you get up to 65°C, which is quite a normal temperature on the face of a solar panel, you’re down to something like four per cent efficiency.’