Spectrally-corrected Albedo for Bifacial Photovoltaics

23863e30-8084-46ea-b50b-753282c42cc5

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£451,945

March 31, 2020

March 31, 2021

Although renewable energy has always been a priority in UK, the incentives cuts for solar have slowed down new investments. There is a need for more efficient technologies to make the PV market more self-sustainable and preserve the thousands related jobs. Bifacial solar panels (BFPV) is one such technology: light can enter from both sides, thus generating more electricity. Unfortunately, there are issues limiting the wide adoption of the new, more efficient technology, the main one being the uncertainty in the forecast of energy output of BFPV. High uncertainty increases the risk for investors, limiting the proliferation of BFPV.

The project builds on the cooperation between RINA and the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) developed during our A4I Round 3 Feasibility Study and aims to develop an innovative method to perform yield studies, with reduced uncertainty on the output of BFPV systems.

The project focuses on a key problem in assessing the energy output of BFPV plant: the accurate evaluation of bifacial gain. In our Round 3 work, NPL introduced "effective" albedo (light reflected from the ground) as an input to RINA's energy output assessment method, which incorporates the varying light spectrum of the reflected light as well as the spectral response of solar panels into the analysis. The impact of this method on significantly reducing uncertainty on BFPV energy output estimations was demonstrated, and the energy estimates themselves rose for example sites.

They key objectives of the current Round 5 project are:

Develop the Round 3 methodologies to be applicable globally;
Specify the hardware and procedural requirements for on-site albedo monitoring including uncertainty analysis.
Incorporate uncertainties due to additional PV module factors into the bifacial gain estimation.
Develop typical effective albedo datasets as a guide when site-specific data are unavailable.
Feed into the working group for the improvement of the IEC 616724-1 standard.
Determine the impact on financial risk by using different measurement and data analysis methods within BFPV energy forecasts.
Benefits from the project will affect the whole value chain of energy, from generation to consumption. More reliable and better-understood measurements and data validation reduce the technical and financial risks of investors, consequently boosting BFPV investments. As a result, more power generated and higher efficiency guaranteed by the BFPV technology will favour a decrease in electricity price for consumers. This will also contribute towards reducing CO2 emissions and the UK's environmental impact.