The current study deals with thermal and economic analyses of a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) combined system to provide power, heating, and drinking water. To this end, an intellegent energy system, including a PVT, and a reverse osmosis (RO) unit, is designed. The suggested system is examined using real data form three locations, namely Doha, Stockholm, and Tehran. The Engineering Equation Solver (EES) and TRNSYS as leading simulation software are employed to model the behavior of the developed system. The obtained results indicate that the total annual net power for systems in Tehran, Doha, and Stockholm cities were 588.09, 12556.35, and −2656.83 at the mass flow rate of 40 , respectively. In addition, the cost analysis indicated that the produced fresh water cost is 0.16, 0.88, and 0.24 according to the Doha, Stockholm, and Tehran weather data conditions. Calculations represent that the system cost rate for the Doha location is 19.85 as the lowest value among considered cities. The exergy analysis results represented that the PVT modules in three areas have the highest exergy destruction rate in comparison with heat storage thanks.
