Share:


Techno-economic comparison of bifacial vs monofacial solar panels

    Gürkan S. Kumbaroğlu Affiliation
    ; Mehmet Emre Çamlibel Affiliation
    ; Cem Avcı   Affiliation

Abstract

A techno-economic analysis is performed for a solar farm with a 35 MWe installed capacity using bifacial solar panels and compared with standard monofacial solar panels at the same installed capacity level. The bifacial panel usage gain from total panel efficiency is identified from 4-year measurements to be within a range of 7.9–16.8% depending on monthly yield. A Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to forecast electricity prices under uncertainty. In terms of Net Present Value, it is found that the bifacial farm yields 12.6% higher values than the monofacial options under reference assumptions. An incremental internal rate of return (IRR) analysis is carried out yielding an IRR for the bifacial panels of 44% under various scenarios. The sensitivity analysis reveals that results are highly sensitive to discount rate and lifetime, and less sensitive to electricity prices. SWOT analysis performed to compare the bifacial with the monofacial panel and evaluate panels according to internal and external factors. The study was concluded with a summary of the technical specifications based on the test results. The results were used to identify that 12.2% added net present value corresponding to $186.7 – $214.5 per unit MW (under various electricity price trajectories) can be used as a reference for assessing the benefit for usage of bifacial PV for 35 MW type medium-size projects. In summary, it is suggested that bifacial solar PV with its outstanding techno-economic results can be the driving force of the growing solar PV market.


First published online 08 July 2022

Keyword : bifacial solar PV, monofacial solar PV, techno-economic analysis, SWOT, Monte Carlo simulation

How to Cite
Kumbaroğlu, G. S., Çamlibel, M. E., & Avcı, C. (2021). Techno-economic comparison of bifacial vs monofacial solar panels. Engineering Structures and Technologies, 13(1), 7–18. https://doi.org/10.3846/est.2021.17181
Published in Issue
Dec 31, 2021
Abstract Views
438
PDF Downloads
526
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

International Energy Agency. (2020). World energy outlook.

Kılci, O., & Koklu, M. (2020). Bifacial and monofacial photovoltaic module with tracker system analysis. Journal of Amasya University the Institute of Sciences and Technology, 1(2), 101–105.

Libal, J., & Kopecek, R. (2019). Bifacial photovoltaics: Technology, applications and economics. The Institution of Engineering and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1049/PBPO107E

Moehlecke, A., Febras, F. S., & Zanesco, I. (2013). Electrical performance analysis of PV modules with bifacial silicon solar cells and white diffuse reflector. Solar Energy, 96, 253–262 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2013.07.028.

Nussbaumer, H., Janssen, G., Berrian, D., Wittmer, B., Klenk, M., Baumann, T., Baumgartner, F., Morf, M., Burgers, A., Libal, J., & Mermoud, A. (2020). Accuracy of simulated data for bifacial systems with varying tilt angles and share of diffuse radiation. Solar Energy, 197, 6–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.12.071

Park, H., Chang, S., Park, S., & Kim, W. K. (2019). Outdoor performance test of bifacial n-type silicon photovoltaic modules. Sustainability, 11, 6234. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226234

Raina, G., & Sinha, S. (2020). A simulation study to evaluate and compare monofacial vs bifacial PERC PV Cells and the effect of albedo on bifacial performance. In Materials today: Proceedings (Vol. 46, Part 11, pp. 5242–5247). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.08.632

Rodríguez-Gallegos, C. D., Liu, H., Gandhi, O., Singh, J. P., Krishnamurthy, V., Kumar, A., Stein, J. S., Wang, S., Li, L., Reindl, T., & Peters, I. M. (2020). Global techno-economic performance of bifacial and tracking photovoltaic systems. Joule, 4(7), 1514–1541. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.05.005

Shoukry, I., Libal, J., Kopecek, R., Wefringhaus, E., & Werner, J. (2016). Modelling of bifacial gain for stand-alone and in-field installed bifacial PV modules. Energy Procedia, 92, 600–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.07.025

Tillmann, P., Jäger, K., & Becker, C. (2020). Minimizing the levelized cost of electricity for bifacial solar panel arrays using Bayesian optimization. Sustainable Energy and Fuels, 4, 254–264. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SE00750D

VDMA. (2020). International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (11th ed.).