Annual Energy Production Uncertainty of Bifacial PV Plants Caused by Inaccuracies in Albedo Data: Case Studies Using SAM

Bifacial PV technology has a rapidly growing presence in the solar industry. Although several studies have tried to quantify bifacial gains, there is limited information about the associated uncertainty-an essential quantity in solar PV projects. In this regard, a sensitivity analysis of the uncertainty in annual energy production of a bifacial PV plant with respect to the ground albedo uncertainty is presented here. A bifacial PV plant is configured using NREL' public-domain SAM simulation model and realistic scenarios at three U.S. sites. Results show that the uncertainty in the annual energy production directly depends on the albedo uncertainty and, in a non-linear way, on the albedo value itself.