Moisture-participating MOF thermal battery for heat reallocation between indoor environment and building-integrated photovoltaics
Effrosyni Gkaniatsou, Bin Meng, Frédéric Cui, Roel Loonen, Farid Nouar, Christian Serre, Jlm Jan Hensen
Abstract
The present deployment of photovoltaic (PV) panels on the rooftop has been far below its potential. Stakeholders often see the PV as a strong design constraint, isolated from the built environment and not adapted to their requirements. Here, we propose a new design that combines the PV panels with a metal-organic framework based sorptive thermal battery, which serves as a multi-functional building element and is more actively involved in the indoor environment regulation. The open-loop thermal battery can stock moisture from air with 105 times its volume so that the built environment with high humidity at night is dried to a comfortable and healthy level. The moisture is removed at daytime with unpleasant solar heat, thereby cools the PV panels simultaneously, improving electricity generation by 5%. The benefits of this design can be translated into economic added value to facilitate investment decisions of building-integrated PV projects.