A review of bifacial solar photovoltaic applications

Abstract

Bifacial photovoltaics (BPVs) are a promising alternative to conventional monofacial photovoltaics given their ability to exploit solar irradiance from both the front and rear sides of the panel, allowing for a higher amount of energy production per unit area. The BPV industry is still emerging, and there is much work to be done until it is a fully mature technology. There are a limited number of reviews of the BPV technology, and the reviews focus on different aspects of BPV. This review comprises an extensive in-depth look at BPV applications throughout all the current major applications, identifying studies conducted for each of the applications, and their outcomes, focusing on optimization for BPV systems under different applications, comparing levelized cost of electricity, integrating the use of BPV with existing systems such as green roofs, information on irradiance and electrical modeling, as well as providing future scope for research to improve the technology and help the industry.