Welcome to the PVT Hybrid Reading Room

I've pulled together a few of the better resources on the web for those familiarizing themselves with the field of Hybrid Photovoltaic Thermal collectors. Often they explore rival solutions to the challenge of managing heat and maximizing the use of the available sunlight for a given location.
 
A study of absorption for Flat PV/T collectors VERY Comprehensive on ebookbrowse (I've never heard of that site before either.)

For a look over the horizon and into the R&D world: ECN has a bunch of studies of PVT initiatives

Here is a good look at a contender from Solarus in Sweden:  Here

Most likely the Hybrid you have seen is this one  Solimpeks from a first mover in the market.

The other model you might have seen is the Wiosun PV-Therm from Wiosun.

Important benchmark: University of Malaysia researcher Paper comparing two flat hybrids Spiral Water and Square Air Channel: Report (They report efficiencies of 65 and 55% reached but at high mass flow rates and at relatively low temperatures).

More of interest from the PVT Forum where they try to wrap up the basic economic arguments: Some Basics on PVT economics

In the solar sector there is a lot of talk of roadmaps here is one for PVT in particular:  Road map for PVT (also from the PVT forum!)

Really good Solar Cogen white paper (mostly the economic argument but the technology gets addressed too) at Cogenra. (linked to their front page as they seem to be moving things about there a good bit... Smart technology and it looks like they are walking directly toward the customers they can do the most good for.

This just in from Intersolar in San Francisco July of 2011: Power Panel. Impressive, tough product. Not clear if they have gotten past the permitting issues in the US (they are a very new company) but they have their eyes on the prize to be sure.  They are having a bit of trouble on the site making it clear that sometimes they mix watts thermal and watts electrical for calculations but that strikes me as a natural hazard of trailblazing - not an effort to mislead.  They handed out a spreadsheet on a condominum project's ROI calculations in California that was particularly well structured and clear about how the energy nets out and the ROI is best understood.

Here is a report (payment required) that may be of interest:

Abstract: Hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) collectors consist of a thermal collector in which a photovoltaic laminate is attached as a thermal absorber. In addition to their improved electrical efficiency, due to the decrease of the photovoltaic temperature, PV/T collectors have also thermal efficiency, which is the main issue of this research. The theoretical study of a photovoltaic-thermal system for domestic heating and cooling has led to the result that the system can cover a remarkable percentage of the domestic heating and cooling demands. Furthermore, the performance of the PV/T collector with respect to the variation of geographical region as well as to different total surface areas of the system was also investigated. According to the results in both cases, the variation of the above-mentioned parameters has notably affected the solar coverage percentage of the system. As a conclusion it could be claimed that the photovoltaic-thermal technology offers a remarkable solution to the problem of domestic heating and cooling, hence contributing to the reduction of energy consumption in houses.  Go to Site selling the report 
(I make no money from this link or any others... the abstract just landed square in the center of this subject)

Here is a look at PV in general but at a fairly technical level:
Nice overview of PV technology today and where the advances are though to come next: at NatureAsia.com don't miss out on the high res info graphics. Well done.