Spectro-angular analysis of roadside-integrated bifacial solar power systems with reflecting sound barriers

Silvi Bundo, Shweta Pal, Marco Ernst, Rebecca Saive*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
40 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Bifacial photovoltaic modules along highways provide energy supply and act as sound barriers simultaneously. This study examines the impact on energy production when incorporating sound barriers with varying light reflection properties into this integrated solar infrastructure along roadways. Specifically, we use advanced computational simulations to analyze the effects of integrating black, ideal specular, and ideal diffuse (Lambertian) reflectors into an existing highway solar power plant located in the Netherlands. Our analysis combines realistic spectro-angular irradiance data as input with our in-house reverse ray tracing software. Our calculations show that for an east-west facing system, an ideal diffuse reflector increases the annual yield by 70%, while a specular reflector decreases the yield due to shading. Most notably, the diffuse reflector doubles the energy yield during winter months, thereby offering a pathway to decrease the seasonal energy demand and supply gap.

Original languageEnglish
Article number025006
JournalJournal of physics. Photonics
Volume6
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Keywords

  • UT-Gold-D
  • diffuse irradiance
  • direct irradiance
  • spectro-angular irradiance
  • building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)

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