Implications of Seasonal and Spatial Albedo Variation on the Energy Output of Bifacial Solar Farms: A Global Perspective

The energy gain of a bifacial solar farm (compared to its monofacial counterpart) is primarily determined by the magnitude of the ground albedo. There is a persistent suspicion that the seasonal and spatial variability of albedo will lead to dramatic fluctuation and significant loss of overall bifacial energy output, and a high-precision albedo measurement is a prerequisite for bifacial LCOE calculations. In this paper, we assess the hypothesis by calculating the energy output of bifacial solar farms across the world based on satellite-derived seasonal/spatial albedo data. Our results show that energy output is actually not a sensitive function of seasonal albedo, a low-resolution time-averaged albedo would produce comparable (within 1%) results. We conclude that high-quality economic viability and LCOE-assessment is possible even with low-resolution albedo information.