2023 IEA Bifacial Tracking Modeling Exercise

We invite participants to simulate a set of seven imaginary PV systems for which the system design and weather data have been provided.  Anonymized results will be combined and analyzed to show similarities and differences between models.  Each participant will be assigned a participant number, which will be used to identify their results.  This exercise will follow a similar process that has worked well for the blind modeling studies run by the PV Performance Modeling Collaborative (PVPMC) and will be managed is the same way. Any questions, please email Joshua Stein (jsstein@sandia.gov). Be sure to include “IEA PVPS Bifi Tracking Modeling Exercise” in subject line.

NOTE: Instruction file, PAN file, and Results Template changed on August 3, 2023. Deadline extended.

Results Due: October 1, 2023

Files

• Detailed Information and Instructions (Updated 8/3/23)
  • IEA PVPS Bifacial Tracking Model Comparison Instructions v4 (5552 downloads)
• Hourly Averaged Weather File for Albuquerque, NM
  • Phase2_meteo_hourly_psm3format.csv (4001 downloads)
• Module Spec Sheet
  • Trina Vertex 665W Bifacial Module (TSM-DEG21C.20) Spec Sheet (4868 downloads)
• Module .PAN File (Note: you will have the rename file to have a .pan extension) (Updated 8/3/23)
  • Trina Vertex 650W Bifacial Module (TSM-DEG21C.20) PAN file (3643 downloads)
• File to paste in your results (Excel file) (Updated 8/3/23)
  • 2023 IEA PVPS Task 13 Bifacial Tracker Modeling Results Excel Template v2 (3613 downloads)

FAQs

Please send your questions to Joshua Stein (jsstein@sandia.gov). We will post relevant questions and answers below for everyone’s information.

• For the 2P case, are the east and west modules separate strings?  With separate MPPT?
  • Answer: Yes and Yes.
• For the 2P case, are you asking for the average irradiance over the area of two such modules, one east, one west? 
  • Answer: We are asking for front and rear irradiance predicted over the area of both modules from three locations in the row (South, Middle, and North). If you would like to split out the E vs. the W modules, please include these results in the Results file and carefully label them so we know what you are reporting.