Temperature-dependent energy gain of bifacial PV farms: A global perspective

Bifacial solar panels are perceived to be the technology of choice for next-generation solar farms for their increased energy yield at a marginally increased cost. As the bifacial farms proliferate around the world, it is important to investigate the role of temperature-dependent energy-yield and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of bifacial solar farms relative to monofacial farms, stand-alone bifacial modules, and various competing bifacial technologies. In this work, we integrate existing irradiance and light collection models with experimentally validated physics-based temperature-dependent efficiency models to compare the energy yield and LCOE of various bifacial technologies across the world. We find that temperature-dependent efficiency changes the energy yield and LCOE by approximately -10to15%. Indeed, the results differ significantly depending on the location of the farm (defines the illumination and ambient temperature), the elevation of the module (increases light collection), as well as the temperature-coefficients of various bifacial technologies. The analysis presented in this paper will allow us to realistically assess location-specific relative advantage and economic viability of the next generation bifacial solar farms.