Electric Gains of Bifacial PV Modules over Monofacial PV Modules

Abstract

Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) panels represent one of the technological advancements in the photovoltaic solar power technology compared to the monofacial panels. This study aims to demonstrate the electricity gains due to switching from monofacial systems to bifacial systems in Oman, which is a performance metric we introduce and call “approximated bifacial gain” or (ABG). These approximated bifacial gains (ABG) are assessed for two albedo values (0.30 and 0.65). Seven geographically-dispersed Omani cities are considered in this study; namely: Duqm, Ibri, Khasab, Muscat, Salalah, and Sohar. Both annual specific electricity yields (expressed in kWh/kWp/year) and monthly specific electricity yields (expressed in kWh/kWp/month) are compared for these cities under three representative situations: (1) monofacial PV system, (2) bifacial PV system with albedo 0.30, and (3) bifacial PV system with albedo 0.65. Our results suggest that with the low albedo of 0.30, the monthly bifacial gain in Oman is highest in June (9.5%), while it is lowest in the winter (near 6%). With a high albedo of 0.65, the monthly bifacial gain in Oman is still highest in June (about 19%) and still lowest in the winter (near 13%). The obtained average daily specific electricity yield in Oman with monofacial PV systems is about 5 kWh/kWp/day, which corresponds to 1,825 kWh/kWp/year. The study is based on the “Aladdin” cloud-based free tool for PV simulation and computer-aided engineering (CAE).