Positive Impact of Red Soil on Albedo and the Annual Yield of Bifacial Photovoltaic Systems in Ghana

Eva-Maria Grommes (), Ulf Blieske and Jean-Régis Hadji-Minaglou
Additional contact information
Eva-Maria Grommes: Cologne Institute for Renewable Energy, University of Applied Sciences Cologne, 50679 Cologne, Germany
Ulf Blieske: Cologne Institute for Renewable Energy, University of Applied Sciences Cologne, 50679 Cologne, Germany
Jean-Régis Hadji-Minaglou: Department of Engineering, University of Luxembourg, 1359 Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: The annual yield of bifacial photovoltaic systems is highly dependent on the albedo of the underlying soil. There are currently no published data about the albedo of red soil in western Africa. In this study, the impact of the albedo of red soil in Ghana on the energy yield of bifacial photovoltaic systems is analysed. A bifacial photovoltaic simulation model is created by combining the optical view factor matrix with an electrical output simulation. For an exact simulation, the albedo of red soil at three different locations in Ghana is measured for the first time. The average albedo of every red soil is clearly determined, as well as the measurement span including instrumentation uncertainty; values between 0.175 and 0.335 were measured. Considering these data, a state-of-the-art bifacial photovoltaic system with an average of 19.8% efficient modules in northern Ghana can achieve an annual energy yield of 508.8 kWh/m 2 and a bifacial gain of up to 18.3% in comparison with monofacial photovoltaic panels. To summarise, red soil in two out of three locations in Ghana shows higher albedo values than most natural ground surfaces and therefore positively impacts the annual yield of bifacial photovoltaic systems.

Keywords: solar energy; photovoltaic systems; bifacial photovoltaic; power system simulation; renewable energy simulation; red soil; Ghana; albedo (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/2042/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/2042/ (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:16:y:2023:i:4:p:2042-:d:1073375

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 ().