Optimization and performance of bifacial solar modules: A global perspective
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
With the rapidly growing interest in bifacial photovoltaics (PV), a worldwide map of their potential performance can help assess and accelerate the global deployment of this emerging technology. However, the existing literature only highlights optimized bifacial PV for a few geographic locations or develops worldwide performance maps for very specific configurations, such as the vertical installation. It is still difficult to translate these location- and configuration-specific conclusions to a general optimized performance of this technology. In this paper, we present a global study and optimization of bifacial solar modules using a rigorous and comprehensive modeling framework. Our results demonstrate that with a low albedo of 0.25, the bifacial gain of ground-mounted bifacial modules is less than 10% worldwide. However, increasing the albedo to 0.5 and elevating modules 1 m above the ground can boost the bifacial gain to 30%. Moreover, we derive a set of empirical design rules, which optimize bifacial solar modules across the world and provide the groundwork for rapid assessment of the location-specific performance. We find that ground-mounted, vertical, east-west-facing bifacial modules will outperform their south-north-facing, optimally tilted counterparts by up to 15% below the latitude of 30 degrees, for an albedo of 0.5. The relative energy output is reversed in latitudes above 30 degrees. A detailed and systematic comparison with data from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America validates the model presented in this paper.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1423188
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1692204
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5J00-70091
- Journal Information:
- Applied Energy, Vol. 212, Issue C; ISSN 0306-2619
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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