Development of an irradiance rorecast functional tool for simulation of energy from bifacial photovoltaic panels (DiffuseBPV)

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The cost of photovoltaic (PV) panels has decreased substantially over the past decade, such that they now constitute only about 40% of the entire system cost; future panel cost reductions are likely to be less significant and will only have a small effect on the total system cost. However, technologies which increase panel energy harvesting efficiency are of strong interest as they decrease the cost of all components of the system on a per installed watt basis. Bifacial panels offer just this possibility - they are able to absorb light from both the front side and back side of the panel. Quantifying the light harvested by the backside is very dependent on whole-sky conditions and the system deployment environment: a very limited number of case studies have shown the increase in energy yield, but these have not been done under controlled conditions or integrated over long term deployment, and thus offer only qualitative guidance. Celestica is a top tier manufacture of solar panels, and desires to add bifacial panels to its product offering. The University of Ottawa's SUNLAB Solar Research Group will develop a simulation and design tool which can accurately predict the energy yield enhancements with this new technology over a range of customer deployment conditions will significantly enhance Celestica worldwide sales opportunities.