A contrast in between monofacial and bifacial PV systems in Ghana demonstrated how modifications in system specifications can impact the bifacial gains. The scientists discovered that altering the albedo of a land-based system can increase the bifacial gain from 5.25% to 14.5%.
February 23, 2024 Bernadette Geyer
Researchers from Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Bui Power Authority, and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences have actually examined the efficiency of existing and simulated monofacial land-based and floating solar setups in Ghana and compared them with the energy yield of simulated bifacial systems of the very same measurements and style.
The existing setups are a 50 MW ground-mounted PV center and a 400 kW drifting PV variety. Both are connected to the 404 MW hydroelectric power plant at the Bui Dam.
“One of the crucial clinical understanding spaces missing out on in the literature evaluation is the absence of thorough efficiency information for land-based and floating PV planetary systems (monofacial and bifacial) particularly created and checked in West Africa’s low latitude areas,” the scientists highlighted. In utilizing various solar combination techniques at the hydropower plant, the group looked for to figure out the optimum system specifications to improve efficiency.
The outcomes of the group’s evaluation reveal the gain of non-optimized bifacial land-based PV and bifacial drifting PV (FPV) systems is 2.51% and 4.57% respectively, compared to their monofacial equivalents. The scientists kept in mind that while this was not substantial adequate to validate setting up a brand-new system, extra gains might be accomplished by enhancing the qualities of the system.
Altering the ground albedo of a land-based PV system from gravel to a white surface area increased the bifacial gain from 5.25% to 14.5%. The group likewise identified the maximum tilt angle for bifacial land-based PV and FPV systems to be 15% to accomplish optimal yearly energy generation of 79.5 GWh and 620.9 MWh respectively.
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For the research study, Bui Power Authority acquired 15-minute action day-to-day determined weather condition information for 2022, consisting of worldwide horizontal irradiance on a horizontal surface area, ambient temperature level, and wind speed. The energy generation information readily available from Bui for the 400 kW functional monofacial FPV system covers the duration from September 2022 to February 2023, while information for the energy produced by the 50 MW land-based monofacial system is from the whole year of 2022.
The scientists utilized the System Advisor Model (SAM) tool and a customized weather condition file from the National Solar Radiation Database to mimic the efficiency of a bifacial PV system on water and land. Based upon the evaluation, the group discovered that for the very best efficiency and boost in bifacial gain, the specifications for the albedo, tilt angle, and ground cover ratio must be 0.5, 15, and 0.3 respectively.
“With 1% of Africa’s overall area of water bodies, FPV has the prospective to produce 101 GWp of power, a 46.04 TWh yearly addition, and water cost savings of 743 million m3/year,” the academics highlighted.