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In this study, a novel nuclear-solar complementary power (NSCP) system using heavy liquid metal is proposed for electricity and freshwater productions. A small nuclear reactor and a solar tower receiver are integrated in this multi-energy complementary system. Liquid lead-bismuth eutectic alloy is utilized as the heat transfer medium in the solar energy block. The Ebsilon software is used to model the NSCP system. The design point behaviour estimate results show that the electric power and electric efficiency of the NSCP system are 318.8 MW and 39.3%. The solar power capacity proportion is 43.5%. The freshwater daily output of the NSCP system is 3891.8 t. The exergy evaluation results reveal that the solar tower receiver has the maximum exergy loss (345.81 MW) with the exergy efficiency of 46.2%. The annual operation behaviour analysis results of the NSCP system reveal that under the assumed operation strategy, high power generation capacity factors can be achieved. The economic investigation results show that the levelized cost of electricity of the NSCP system is 0.0517 $∙(kWh)−1. Compared with a desalination system driven by a coal-fired power plant, the desalination block of the NSCP system can have an annual cost saving of 680423.0 $.

The current study presents a novel hybrid solar multi-segment photovoltaic panel/thermal (PVPT) system. The design principle of the PVPT system is introduced. The arranged optical filters are employed as the concentrator for the solar receiver tube in this PVPT system. A new optical filter design is conducted. The optical behaviour evaluation of the PVPT system is launched and the results demonstrate that with the receiver height increased, an optimal receiver height exists, leading to the highest energy flux on the thermal receiver. Under a typical fixed parameter condition, the total output power of the PVPT system is 2078.3 W. The thermodynamic performance evaluation results of the PVPT system demonstrate that with the solar irradiance increased, the total output power and overall energy efficiency of the PVPT system both increase. The increase of PV cell temperature can result in the decreases of the output power and energy efficiency of the PVPT system. As the operating temperature of the solar receiver tube increases, the output power of the PVPT system has the peak value. An optimal receiver tube temperature exists, leading to the maximum output power.

Nanofluids (NFs) have been investigated as optical filters for photovoltaic/thermal applications, since they are more effective to produce heat with higher temperatures. However, the effect of temperature on both the stability and optical property of NFs has been little reported. In this work, we synthesized the SiO2-H2O NFs under different conditions and different nanoparticle volume fractions, and investigated the NF dispersion stability and optical properties at elevated temperatures. We analyzed the effects of several factors including the sonication temperature, the exposure temperature, the nanoparticle volume fraction and the exposure time. The results showed that reducing the maximum sonicating temperature during the NF fabrication process is beneficial to prolonging the NF stability, and the prepared NF stability was rather good with the maximum sonicating temperature of 30 °C. The absorptance of NFs decreased when the exposure temperature increased from 25 to 90 °C, and agglomeration more likely occurred for higher exposure temperatures. It is also found that the adding of nanoparticles helped to increase the spectrum absorption ability of NF. As a result, the overall energy efficiencies of the photovoltaic/thermal device using the NFs as the optical filter can be increased compared with that using the water filter.