In the present study, performance analysis of basin type solar stills integrated with N identical partially covered photovoltaic thermal (PVT) compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) water collectors known as PVT-CPC active solar distillation systems have been carried out by incorporating the effect of water depth. Two Indian climatic conditions namely January (winter) and June (summer) have been considered for numerical computation. The average daily thermal, exergy, electrical, overall exergy, overall thermal efficiencies and average daily productivity have been evaluated for optimum number of collectors and mass flow rate and the results obtained have been compared. It has been concluded that single slope performs better than double slope PVT-CPC active solar still on the basis of average daily thermal efficiency, overall thermal efficiency and productivity if depth of water in the basin is more than 0.31 m and vice versa. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.