Bifacial and Monofacial PV Systems Performance Assessment Based on IEC 61724-1 Standard

Abstract

The performance of bifacial photovoltaic (bPV) modules under various operating conditions needs to be analyzed with research and development activities. This research work performed an experimental comparison of the energy performance of a bPV module and a monofacial photovoltaic (mPV) module, based on experimental data measured at SolarTechLAB, Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano. For this purpose, the performance ratio (PR) and the temperature-corrected PR proposed by the IEC 61724-1 standard for bPV and mPV modules were evaluated. To calculate the energy improvement of the technology in terms of bifacial gain, measurements were recorded during the period from 8 June to 31 November, 2022, of PV modules facing south, ground-mounted and with a low albedo. It was found that the PR relative gain of the bPV compared with the mPV module is 10.8% higher in the whole period. Moreover, the presence of a commercial white plastic sheet with high reflectivity located beneath the bPV modules from 28 May to 5 June, 2022, showed an additional increase in the bPV PR of 0.0165, corresponding to a relative difference increased by 20%.