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 marginally increased cost. As the bifacial farms proliferate around the world, it is important to investigate the role of temperature-dependent energy-yield and 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 irradiance and light collection models with experimentally validated, physics-based temperature-dependent efficiency models to compare the energy yield and LCOE reduction of various bifacial technologies across the world. We find that temperature-dependent efficiency changes the energy yield and LCOE by approximately -10 to 15%. Indeed, the results differ significantly depending on…