Monofacial and Bifacial Micro PV Installation as Element of Energy Transition—The Case of Poland

Piotr Olczak,Tomasz Mania,Artur Dyczko,Małgorzata Olek,Dominika Matuszewska

doi:10.3390/en14020499

Abstract

The several government subsidies available in Poland contributed to an increased interest in PV installations. Installed PV capacity increased from 100 MW in 2016 up to 2682.7 MW in July 2020. In 2019 alone, 104,000 microinstallations (up to 50 kWp) were installed in Poland. The paper determines the energy gain and the associated reduction of CO2 emissions for two types of solar installation located in Poland. The monofacial solar modules with a power of 5.04 kWp (located in Leki) and bifacial solar modules with a power of 6.1 kWp (located in Bydgoszcz). Both installations use mono-crystalline Si-based 1st generation PV cells. With comparable insolation, a bifacial installation produces approx. 10% (for high insolation) to 28% (for low insolation) more energy than a monofacial PV installation. Avoided annual CO2 emission in relation to the installation capacity ranges from 0.58 to 0.64 Mg/kWp for monofacial and from 0.68 to 0.74 Mg/kWp for bifacial and is on average approx. 16% higher for bifacial installations. Cost-benefit analyses were made. For different electricity prices, the NPV for monofacial and bifacial was determined.

Highlights

The development of the industry and technology has resulted in increased energy demand
Society is much more aware of the decreasing fossil fuel resources and other problems caused by burning fossil fuels such as climate change, eutrophication, acid rain, greenhouse gas (GHG), mercury and other pollutant emissions, etc. [1,2]
Data from KOBiZE shows that GHG emissions were 413.8 million tons of CO2eq in Poland in 2017

Summary

Introduction

The development of the industry and technology has resulted in increased energy demand. Poland is one of countries where fossil fuels, mainly coal, is widely used to supply energy [3] and is facing the urgent need for developing a proper solution to deal with problems caused by the energy sector from environmental, technology, and economic points of view [4]. In the European Union (EU), solar PV electricity generation capacity increased from 1.9 GW in 2010 to over 133 GW in 2019. At the end of 2019, from the installed PV power capacity both in EU and UK, around 150 TWh of electricity could be generated (which gives around 5.2% of the final electricity demand) [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results