Practical Performance Analysis of a Bifacial PV Module and System

Juhee Jang and Kyungsoo Lee
Additional contact information
Juhee Jang: Energy & Electrical Engineering, Korea Polytechnic University, Siheung-si 15073, Korea
Kyungsoo Lee: Energy & Electrical Engineering, Korea Polytechnic University, Siheung-si 15073, Korea

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-13

Abstract: Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) modules can take advantage of rear-surface irradiance, enabling them to produce more energy compared with monofacial PV modules. However, the performance of bifacial PV modules depends on the irradiance at the rear side, which is strongly affected by the installation setup and environmental conditions. In this study, we experiment with a bifacial PV module and a bifacial PV system by varying the size of the reflective material, vertical installation, temperature mismatch, and concentration of particulate matter (PM), using three testbeds. From our analyses, we found that the specific yield increased by 1.6% when the reflective material size doubled. When the PV module was installed vertically, the reduction of power due to the shadow effect occurred, and thus the maximum current was 14.3% lower than the short-circuit current. We also observed a maximum average surface temperature mismatch of 2.19 °C depending on the position of the modules when they were composed in a row. Finally, in clear sky conditions, when the concentration of PM 10 changed by 100 µg/m 3 , the bifacial gain increased by 4%. In overcast conditions, when the concentration of PM 10 changed by 100 µg/m 3 , the bifacial gain decreased by 0.9%.

Keywords: bifacial PV module; reflective material; temperature mismatch; particulate matter; diffuse irradiance factor; bifacial gain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4389/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4389/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:17:p:4389-:d:404078

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().