Temperature-dependent energy gain of bifacial PV farms: A global perspective

• Published in: Applied energy 2020-10, Vol.276 (C), p.115405, Article 115405
• Main Authors: Patel, M. Tahir, Vijayan, Ramachandran A., Asadpour, Reza, Varadharajaperumal, M., Khan, M. Ryyan, Alam, Muhammad A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bifacial Solar farms; Levelized cost of energy (LCOE); Photovoltaics; Solar energy
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115405

•Temperature-dependent energy-yield (YY) and LCOE favor bifacial over monofacial PV.•An irradiance criterion defines the necessary condition for positive bifacial gain.•T-dependent vs. STC energy-yield change: (−7, 12)% for Al-BSF and (−5, 5)% for SHJ.•Global bifacial energy gain for SHJ (bi) vs. Al-BSF (mono) ranges from 12 to 45%.•YY saturates at elevation ~2 m with a global gain of 0–20% over unelevated farms. Bifacial solar panels are perceived to be the technology of choice for next-generation solar farms for their increased energy yield at a marginally increased cost. As the bifacial farms proliferate around the world, it is important to investigate the role of temperature-dependent energy-yield and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of bifacial solar farms relative to monofacial farms, stand-alone bifacial modules, and various competing bifacial technologies. In this work, we integrate existing irradiance and light collection models with experimentally validated physics-based temperature-dependent efficiency models to compare the energy yield and LCOE of various bifacial technologies across the world. We find that temperature-dependent efficiency changes the energy yield and LCOE by approximately -10to15%. Indeed, the results differ significantly depending on the location of the farm (defines the illumination and ambient temperature), the elevation of the module (increases light collection), as well as the temperature-coefficients of various bifacial technologies. The analysis presented in this paper will allow us to realistically assess location-specific relative advantage and economic viability of the next generation bifacial solar farms.