Glare Potential Evaluation of Structured PV Glass Based on Gonioreflectometry

Potential glare through reflected sunlight can be a significant hindrance factor for photovoltaic (PV) installations, especially for building-integrated PVs with atypical orientations and tilt angles present. Structured glass surfaces or antireflective (AR) coatings are often used as a solution, how...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of photovoltaics 2022-11, Vol.12 (6), p.1314-1318
Main Authors: Babin, Markus, Thorsteinsson, Sune, Jakobsen, Michael L., Spataru, Sergiu V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bidirectional reflectance
Blindness
Characterization of photovoltaic (PV)
Coatings
Discomfort
Distribution functions
encapsulation and manufacturing
Evaluation
Flash blindness
Forward scattering
Glare
Glass
Incidence angle
Irradiance
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaic effects
PV module materials
Reflectometry
Retina
Scattering
Surface treatment
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Summary:Potential glare through reflected sunlight can be a significant hindrance factor for photovoltaic (PV) installations, especially for building-integrated PVs with atypical orientations and tilt angles present. Structured glass surfaces or antireflective (AR) coatings are often used as a solution, however, there is currently no universally recognized method or metric to estimate their impact on glare. This article presents an evaluation of the glare potential of different surface glasses for use in PV modules based on their bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF). BRDF threshold values for retinal burn damage, flash blindness, and discomfort glare are calculated based on retinal irradiance thresholds from literature. Subsequently, gonioreflectometric measurements on PV minimodules are used to characterize the reflectance profiles of eight different glass surfaces. Results for all measured structured glasses, both satinated and macrotextured, show significant reductions in BRDF compared with smooth glass, largely eliminating the potential for flash blindness as well as discomfort glare at low incidence angles. At high incidence angles, increased potential for discomfort glare as well as forward scattering along the glass surface can be observed. AR coatings, however, are shown to be insufficient to eliminate glare causing flash blindness.
ISSN:2156-3381
2156-3403
DOI:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2022.3189779