Study of bifacial photovoltaics with fluorinated ethylene propylene as an anti-reflective layer

Abstract

Bifacial photovoltaics is a type of solar photovoltaics technology that is fast growing in popularity owing to the several advantages it offers. In this study, the inclusion of fluorinated ethylene propylene polymer as one of the constituent materials in bifacial photovoltaic modules under various configurations and its effect on the module’s optical performance was investigated and compared with a commercial bifacial module. Monte Carlo ray tracing was used to conduct the study and the system was analyzed under both non tracking and uniaxial tracking conditions for varying surface albedo values corresponding to an ideal scattering surface, white concrete and sand. The analyses performed under normal incidence condition revelated that the net irradiance on the PV layers varied by as much as 96.0314 W m ^−2 between the best and worst performing bifacial configurations. Under uniaxial tracking, the top and rear surfaces of the PV modules could cumulatively be subjected to 21.799 kWh of solar irradiation flux per day over a generation window of eleven hours. The proposed changes could offer cost savings of USD 0.0118 per panel per day and up to an additional 5.802 kg of CO _2 equivalent offsets per panel per year.

Keywords

• bifacial solar
• FEP
• ray tracing
• uniaxial E-W tracking
• PV energy gain