Power prediction of bifacial Si PV module with different reflection conditions on rooftop

Abstract

A bifacial solar module has a structure that allows the rear electrode to be added to the existing silicon photovoltaic module structure. Thus, it can capture energy from both the front and rear sides of the module. In this paper, modeling is suggested to estimate the amount of energy generated from the rear of the bifacial photovoltaic module. After calculating the amount of irradiance from the rear side, the estimated power generation is compared with the real power output from the rear side of the module. The experiments were performed using four different environments with different albedos. The theoretical prediction of the model shows a maximum of 5% and average of 1.86% error in the measurement data. Based on the nature of the bifacial solar module, which receives additional irradiance from the rear side, this study compared the output amounts with respect to different rear environments. Recently, installation of floating Photovoltaic has been increasing. As the reflection of irradiation from the water surface occurs, the positive influence of the installation with the bifacial photovoltaic can be expected. We are confident that this research will contribute to zero energy construction by designing systems based on bifacial PV module with high performance ratio when applying solar power in a microgrid environment, which is the future energy.