Abstract
An evaluation of the degradation effects on photovoltaic modules is essential to minimise uncertainties in the system operation. Bifacial photovoltaic technology is attracting attention due to the capacity of generating energy from the front and rear sides. This paper presents a review of degradation factors, for both conventional monofacial and bifacial photovoltaic modules, to highlight how the current and voltage characteristics of these technologies are affected by degradation. Microcracking, encapsulant discoloration, and light induced degradation seem to have similar effects on both modules. Contrarily, bifacial modules are more prone to potential induced degradation as the electromagnetic shielding is affected by the bifaciality. Bifacial devices are less affected by light and elevated temperature induced degradation. The degradation (1.3%) is similar for both technologies, up to 40 kWh/m2 of solar radiation. Above this value, monofacial degradation increases faster, reaching values of 7%. For tilted systems, the front side soiling degradation of 0.30% per day is similar for both technologies. For vertical systems, soiling loss for bifacial is considerably lower with values of 0.02% per day.
Highlights
Energies 2021, 14, 7935. https://Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources.It occupies the second largest portion of the global installed capacity of renewable energy [1].This energy source has experienced significant growth in the last decade, coming from a total installed capacity of 40.29 GW in 2010 to 707.5 GW in 2020 [2]
The results showed that vertically mounted bifacial PV (BPV) modules are more resilient to soiling effects compared to vertical monofacial PV (MPV) modules and tilted MPV and BPV
This review has presented a contribution to the existing literature, which to the authors’ best knowledge has not previously considered the effects of the degradation on BPV modules nor performed a comparison with the degradation effects faced by monofacial technology
Summary
Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising renewable energy sources It occupies the second largest portion of the global installed capacity of renewable energy [1]. This energy source has experienced significant growth in the last decade, coming from a total installed capacity of 40.29 GW in 2010 to 707.5 GW in 2020 [2]. The different materials and technologies that show a significant improvement of efficiency for a small cost, are quickly introduced to the PV market. This results in many PV systems been installed without sufficient understanding regarding their long term durability and reliability. It can lead to an unexpected degradation, which compromises the longevity of the whole system and affect the Levelised
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