Performance Assessment of Bi-facial PV Module Considering Cloud & Albedo

The bifacial photovoltaic (PV) module has gained attraction in recent days for different applications. The objective of this work is to assess the performance of the bifacial solar module compared to the conventional ones with and without considering the cloud effect in the context of Bangladesh. A bifacial solar module has a structure that also absorbs solar irradiation through the rear surface along with the front module. In this paper, the total cumulative incident energy on both of the surface is calculated. The result shows that without considering the cloud, the monthly total energy shows an increment of 15.4% over mono-facial module for a fixed albedo of 0.16. After considering the cloud, the bifacial module harnesses 10.5% more energy than a mono-facial one for the same albedo. This energy accumulation can be increased up to 80% of the front side using different rear surfaces.