Tracing the light: Designing reflectors for bifacial photovoltaic yield enhancement under outdoor irradiance

Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy plays a pivotal role in the quest for achieving a sustainable and greener future. Increasing the yield of PV modules will not only help in meeting the everincreasing global electricity demands, but also make the PV more economically lucrative, as compared to other sources. Bifacial modules offer an effective way to increase the power generation by accepting the solar irradiance from both faces, i.e., front and rear. The yield of the module depends on the spectral [1] and angular [2] composition of the light incident on it. The spectro-angular composition of the irradiance in outdoor conditions depends on numerous factors, such as, the geographical location [1], time of the day [4] and year [5], climate [6], weather [7], cloud coverage [8], atmospheric conditions, and the reflectors [1] or surroundings. This leads to serious complications in irradiance modeling and, consequently, in PV yield modeling as the input irradiance influences the PV output. Measuring the spectro-angular irradiance helps in addressing this issue. A high-quality hour- or minute-resolved year-long spectro angular irradiance data will help in verifying and training existing and emerging models. Finally, to boost bifacial yield, understanding and optimizing the reflectors become vital. This thesis offers solutions for the above two challenges