A Sensitivity Study of the Impact of Installation Parameters and System Configuration on the Performance of Bifacial PV Arrays

Chang²,

et al. 2019

Sustainability

The outdoor performance of n-type bifacial Si photovoltaic (PV) modules and string systems was evaluated for two different albedo (ground reflection) conditions, i.e., 21% and 79%. Both monofacial and bifacial silicon PV modules were prepared using n-type bifacial Si passivated emitter rear totally diffused cells with multi-wire busbar incorporated with a white and transparent back-sheet, respectively. In the first set of tests, the power production of the bifacial PV string system was compared with the monofacial PV string system installed on a grey concrete floor with an albedo of ~21% for approximately one year (June 2016–May 2017). In the second test, the gain of the bifacial PV string system installed on the white membrane floor with an albedo of ~79% was evaluated for approximately ten months (November 2016–August 2017). During the second test, the power production by an equivalent monofacial module installed on a horizontal solar tracker was also monitored. The gain was estimated by comparing the energy yield of the bifacial PV module with that of the monofacial module. For the 1.5 kW PV string systems with a 30° tilt angle to the south and 21% ground albedo, the year-wide average bifacial gain was determined to be 10.5%. An increase of the ground albedo to 79% improved the bifacial gain to 33.3%. During the same period, the horizontal single-axis tracker yielded an energy gain of 15.8%.

Section: Comparison Of Power Production Of Tracked Monofacial and Bifsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outdoor Performance Test of Bifacial n-Type Silicon Photovoltaic Modules

Chang²,

et al. 2019

Sustainability

Progress in Photovoltaics

“…The bifacial_radiance tool (based on the backward RT), which uses the open‐source software Radiance in order to model the rear irradiance received by solar cells, has been used in the current work for the RT approach. More details on how Radiance is used to model the rear irradiance of bifacial PV modules can be found in Asgharzadeh et al…”

Section: Research Methodology and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of ray tracing and view factor simulations of locally resolved rear irradiance with the experimental values

Berrian

Libal

2020

One of the prerequisites for a reliable energy yield prediction of bifacial photovoltaic (PV) systems is the capability of modeling the backside irradiance of those systems with high accuracy. Currently, the most important optical models used to quantify the reflected irradiance on the backside of a bifacial solar panel are view factor and ray tracing. The MoBiDiG simulation tool has been developed at ISC Konstanz uses the view factor (VF) concept to model the rear irradiance. In addition to the VF concept, ray tracing (RT) has been adopted to determine the backside irradiance of bifacial modules by using the open-source tool bifacial_radiance that has been developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). A customized monocrystalline silicon solar panel has been built in order to evaluate the accuracy of the existing optical models by locally resolved rear irradiance measurement. The performance of rear irradiance has been investigated along the rows of the customized PV module during sunny and cloudy days with typical back irradiance values of ≈50 and ≈ 150 W∕m 2 . The comparison of measured and modeled data has been carried out on hourly, daily, and monthly basis, and the results show lower deviations for solar cells located in the center of the PV module than on the edge. Moreover, the concept of decisive solar cells has been introduced and applied to both measured and modeled data, solar cells located in the center rows were found to act as the most decisive solar cells. Finally, considering the installation configuration studied here, ie, bifacial mounting with low clearance height (below 0.2 m), both hourly RT and VF approaches are able to model long-term cumulative irradiance received by decisive solar cells with a very high accuracy ranging from ±0.5% to ±2%.

Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering

“…As the photovoltaic system installation is shown in Figure 4, the main components needed are solar cell modules, solar charge controllers, battery banks, and power inverters [29]. Solar cells function to convert solar radiation into electrical energy directly.…”

Section: Micro-hydro Power Plantmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning of Hybrid Micro-Hydro and Solar Photovoltaic Systems for Rural Areas of Central Java, Indonesia

Syahputra

Soesanti

2020

This paper proposes the planning of hybrid micro-hydro and solar photovoltaic system for rural areas of Central Java, Indonesia. The Indonesian government has paid great attention to the development of renewable energy sources, especially solar and hydropower. One area that has a high potential for both types of energy is the province of Central Java, located on the island of Java, Indonesia. In this research, we conduct field research to determine the ideal capacity of solar and micro-hydro hybrid power plants, electricity load analysis, and optimal design of hybrid power plants. Data on the potential of micro-hydro plants are obtained by direct measurement on the Ancol Bligo irrigation channel located in Bligo village, Ngluwar district, Magelang regency, Central Java province, Indonesia. Data on solar power potential were obtained from NASA’s database for solar radiation in the Central Java region. Hydropower potential data include channel length, debit, heads, and power potential in irrigation channels originating from rivers. These data are used to design an optimal hybrid power plant. The method used to obtain the optimal design of a hybrid power plant system is based on the analysis of capital costs, grid sales, cost of energy, and net present cost. Based on the parameters of the analysis, the composition of the optimal generator for the on-grid scheme to the distribution network can be determined. The results showed that hybrid power plants were able to meet the needs of electrical energy in the villages around the power plant and that the excess energy could be sold to national electricity providers.