Effective Irradiance Monitoring Using Reference Modules

Braid, Jennifer L.; Stein, Joshua S.; King, Bruce H.; Raupp, Christopher; Mallineni, Jaya; Robinson, Justin; Knapp, Steve

doi:10.1109/pvsc48317.2022.9938851

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…A comparison of bifacial modules and pyranometers for GE measurements on trackers was recently performed by [21]. Their results showed pyranometer GE was on average 3.6% higher than reference module GE.…”

Section: A Rear and Effective Irradiance (Rpoa And Ge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 show a 6.6% MAPE for pyranometer versus reference module GE. Adjustments for AOI and spectral dependencies were made to the pyranometer GE in [21], but were not done here, which may be the cause of discrepancy between the two works. Having established that the reference cell and reference module measurements show the strongest correlation for RPOA and GE, we now provide a deeper look at their relationships.…”

Section: A Rear and Effective Irradiance (Rpoa And Ge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature contains comparisons of small-area irradiance sensors for RPOA measurements [15] - [18], works that used monofacial reference modules for frontside plane-of-array irradiance (GPOA) measurements [19] [20], and recently, an investigation of bifacial reference panels for effective irradiance monitoring [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring Irradiance With Bifacial Reference Panels

Riedel

Bartholomaus

Vedde

et al. 2022

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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The heterogenous nature and spectral distribution of rear plane-of-array irradiance RPOA presents challenges when measured by small-area sensors such as pyranometers. Bifacial reference modules serving as largearea sensors can simplify irradiance monitoring because their electrical response follows that of the power generating modules in an array. This article compares RPOA and effective irradiance GE measured by calibrated reference modules against three commonly used small-area sensors including pyranometers, reference cells, and photodiodes. A technology-matched monofacial module is mounted side-by-side with the bifacial reference to decouple effective irradiance measurements into front and backside contributions. The results show that RPOA and GE measurements made with reference panels have the best correlation to reference cells. The mean absolute errors between the two measurement approaches are 9% relative, 4 W/m 2 absolute for RPOA and 4% relative, 7 W/m 2 absolute for GE. When GE measurements from the four sensor types are used to predict string-level power, the reference panel measurements show a 3.4% prediction error, which is comparable to that achieved when using GE measurements from pyranometers (3.0%) and reference cells (2.9%) thereby suggesting that reference modules can be used to accurately measure RPOA and GE in bifacial systems.

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Section: A Rear and Effective Irradiance (Rpoa And Ge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Rear and Effective Irradiance (Rpoa And Ge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Measuring Irradiance With Bifacial Reference Panels

Riedel

Bartholomaus

Vedde

et al. 2022

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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“…The authors of [14] also considered reference modules to monitor the effective irradiance. They found pyranometers to overestimate the effective irradiance by 2.5 -4.5 %, even after spectral corrections were made.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of the Effective Irradiance and Bifacial Gain for PV Arrays Using the Maximum Power Current

Abe

Dias

Notton

et al. 2023

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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Bifacial photovoltaic modules are able to convert the solar radiation reaching their front and rear-sides, which means that more electricity can be produced using the same array area as monofacial modules with similar ratings. In some locations, the cost per power unit for such a technology has already become cost-competitive with conventional monofacial modules. The so-called effective irradiance and the bifacial gain are useful metrics, respectively, to assess the solar resource and the performance of bifacial arrays. To calculate the effective irradiance, studies previously published employ rear-side irradiance measurements, whereas to compute the bifacial gain, other works make use of monofacial modules with rating similar to those of the bifacial modules under analysis. In this paper, a straightforward method is presented, allowing to calculate the effective irradiance from the maximum power current, and to calculate the bifacial gain using a power scaling relation. The proposed method was experimentally tested using an outdoor platform with a dual-axis tracking system with bifacial modules. The effective irradiance calculated using the novel method presented nRMSE of 2.88 %, relative to the results obtained using the consolidated method. The bifacial gains obtained were 6.24 % and 6.69 %, respectively, using the proposed and traditional calculation methods. The procedure presented in this study might be useful for the quantification of the effective irradiance and the bifacial gain for PV installations which do not have extensive monitoring hardware.

show abstract

“…The authors of [16] also considered reference modules to monitor the effective irradiance. They found pyranometers to overestimate the effective irradiance by 2.5 -4.5 %, even after spectral corrections were made.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of the effective irradiance and bifacial gain for PV arrays using the maximum power current

Abe¹,

Dias²,

Notton³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Manuscript Version 3 - accepted by the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics. The final version is available at 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2023.3242117 Abstract: Bifacial photovoltaic modules are able to convert the solar radiation reaching their front and rear-sides, which means that more electricity can be produced using the same array area as monofacial modules with similar ratings. In some locations, the cost per power unit for such a technology has already become cost-competitive with conventional monofacial modules. The so-called effective irradiance and the bifacial gain are useful metrics, respectively, to assess the solar resource and the performance of bifacial arrays. To calculate the effective irradiance, studies previously published employ rear-side irradiance measurements, whereas to compute the bifacial gain, other works make use of monofacial modules with rating similar to those of the bifacial modules under analysis. In this paper, a straightforward method is presented, allowing to calculate the effective irradiance from the maximum power current, and to calculate the bifacial gain using a power scaling relation. The proposed method was experimentally tested using an outdoor platform with a dual-axis tracking system with bifacial modules. The effective irradiance calculated using the novel method presented nRMSE of 2.88 %, relative to the results obtained using the consolidated method. The bifacial gains obtained were 6.24 % and 6.69 %, respectively, using the proposed and traditional calculation methods. The procedure presented in this study might be useful for the quantification of the effective irradiance and the bifacial gain for PV installations which do not have extensive monitoring hardware.

show abstract

Effective Irradiance Monitoring Using Reference Modules

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

Measuring Irradiance With Bifacial Reference Panels

Measuring Irradiance With Bifacial Reference Panels

Estimation of the Effective Irradiance and Bifacial Gain for PV Arrays Using the Maximum Power Current

Estimation of the effective irradiance and bifacial gain for PV arrays using the maximum power current

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