Traditional AL-BSF PV cells are made to convert light hitting the front side of the cell to electricity. However newer PV cell designs (e.g., PERC, PERL, PERT, and HIT) with some minor modifications can be made so that light hitting from both sides contributes to the current produced by the cell. When placed into modules designed with transparent backsheets or glass-glass construction, bifacial PV modules are born. This idea is not new, but has only recently been applied to mainstream PV modules and systems and is growing fast. ITRPV 2018 forecasts predict that bifacial modules will make up 10% of the world market share of PV modules by 2020 and over 30% by 2028.
Ask yourself, if the first PV cell that was invented was bifacial, how would PV modules and systems be different from today’s PV technologies? We believe that bifacial PV represents a revolutionary opportunity for increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of solar energy systems. Field data, characterization methods and standards, and predictive models are needed.
Sandia National Laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the University of Iowa worked together from 2016-2018 to better understand the performance characteristics of bifacial PV modules and systems. Sandia and NREL are currently working together on a follow-on project from 2019-2021 aimed at optimizing the performance of bifacial PV systems.
Joshua S. Stein Sandia National Laboratories (Principal Investigator; Field data and modeling)
Cameron Stark, Dan Riley, Cliff Hansen
Chris Deline National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Co-PI; Characterization and modeling)
Silvana Ayala Pelaez, Bill Marion
Fatima Toor University of Iowa (2016-2018)
Amir Asgharzadeh Shishavan (PhD, 2019)
Publications and Presentations
2021
MESIA Webinar on Bifacial Photovoltaic Module and Systems: Experience and Results – Moderated by Joshua S. Stein, June 29, 2021: Recording: https://lnkd.in/dXA6SHB.
Stein, J.S., C. Reise, et al. (2021). IEA-PVPS T13-14:2021: [Download not found]
Marion, B., Measured and satellite-derived albedo data for estimating bifacial photovoltaic system performance, Solar Energy, v.215, pp. 321-327, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2020.12.050.
Stein, J.S. et al., Estimation of Maximum Current Generated by Bifacial PV Arrays for System Design,” EU PVSEC, 2020. SAND2020-9271C.
Marion, B., “Albedo Data Sets for Bifacial PV Systems,” in 2020 IEEE 47th PVSC, 2020.
Gostein, M., Marion, B., Stueve, B., “Spectral Effects in Albedo and Rearside Irradiance Measurement for Bifacial Performance Estimation,” in 2020 IEEE 47thPVSC, 2020.
Ayala Pelaez, S., Deline, C., Marion, B., Sekulic, B., McDanold, B., Parker J., Stein, J.S. “Field-Array Benchmark of Commercial Bifaical PV Technologies with Publicly Available Data” 47th IEEE PVSC Conference, virtual June 2019.
Carlos D. Rodríguez-Gallegos, Haohui Liu, Oktoviano Gandhi, Jai Prakash Singh, Vijay Krishnamurthy, Abhishek Kumar, Joshua S. Stein, Shitao Wang, Li Li, Thomas Reindl, Ian Marius Peters. Global Techno-Economic Performance of Bifacial and Tracking Photovoltaic Systems. Joule, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2020.05.005
Deline, C., S. A. Pelaez, S. MacAlpine and C. Olalla (2020). “Estimating and parameterizing mismatch power loss in bifacial photovoltaic systems.” Progress in Photovoltaics. https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3259.
Ayala Pelaez, S. and C. Deline (2020). “bifacial_radiance: a python package for modeling bifacial solar photovoltaic systems.” Journal of Open Source Software 5(50). https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01865
Deline C, Ayala Pelaez S, MacAlpine S, Olalla C. Bifacial PV System Mismatch Loss Estimation & Parameterization. Presented in: 36th EU PVSEC, Marseille France. Slides
Michael Woodhouse, Bill Marion, Susan Huang, David Feldman, Brittany Smith, and Robert Margolis, “Considerations for Utilizing Bifacial Photovoltaic Technologies Based Upon Their Impact to Project Financial Metrics”, 2019 BiFi PV Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands, September 16-17, 2019.
Marion B, Albedo Data for Bifacial PV Systems, PV Reliability Workshop, 2019
Ayala Pelaez, S., C. Deline, P. Greenberg, J. S. Stein and R. K. Kostuk (2019). “Model and Validation of Single-Axis Tracking with Bifacial PV.” Journal of Photovoltaics, 9(3): 715-721. DOI: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2019.2892872.
Liang, T. S., M. Pravettoni, C. Deline, J. S. Stein, R. Kopecek, J. P. Singh, W. Luo, Y. Wang, A. G. Aberle and Y. S. Khoo (2019). “A review of crystalline silicon bifacial photovoltaic performance characterisation and simulation.” Energy & Environmental Science 12(1): 116-148. DOI 10.1039/C8EE02184H.
Ayala Pelaez, C. Deline, S. Macalpine, B. Marion, J. S. Stein, and R. K. Kostuk, “Comparison of bifacial solar irradiance model predictions with field validation,” IEEE J. Photovoltaics, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 82–88, 2019. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8534404
Asgharzadeh, A. et al. 2018. “A Sensitivity Study of the Impact of Installation Parameters and System Configuration on the Performance of Bifacial PV Arrays.” IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics 8(3): 798-805.
bifacial_radiance: Contains a series of Python wrapper functions from NREL to make working with RADIANCE easier, particularly for the PV researcher interested in bifacial PV performance.
bifacialvf: A self-contained view factor (or configuration factor) model from NREL which replicates a 5-row PV system of infinite extent perpendicular to the module rows. Single-axis tracking is supported, and hourly output files based on TMY inputs are saved. Spatial nonuniformity is reported, with multiple rear-facing irradiances collected on the back of each module row.
3Dbifacial_VF: Matlab functions and example scripts to model rearside irradiance using a 3D view factor approach. Able to simulate variations across individual modules in an array. Code is available here:
Sandia_Bifacial-PV_View-Factor-code_0.2-1.zip (5329 downloads)
Bifacial Workshops (click on links to access information and presentations)