It is stated that the globe is entering a clean energy revolution, diverging away from finite sources, and moving towards more renewable sources such as solar energy. Amid the recent technological advancements in photovoltaics, the majority of sites inaugurate standard monofacial crystalline modules fixed at a particular angle relative to their respective latitude. Thus far, the appearance of bifacial modules, that utilize irradiance collection in the front as well as the rear end and hence increase energy yield, may play havoc with their monofacial counterparts in terms of market domination. Furthermore, the contraption behind the use of trackers, that adjusts the orientation of the solar module to track the sun’s movement, is in burgeoning demand. If both types of technology were to be combined (bifacial solar tracking), performances would improve drastically to approximately 40% in terms of energy yield if they were compared to traditional fixed-tilt monofacial systems.
To enhance performances and thus gain market share, a specific set of instrumentation must be used to measure the incident solar radiation to obtain an indication of the prospective potential of bifacial solar trackers. Solar insolation equipment consists of a pyrheliometer and pyranometers; where the latter is used to measure the combined amount of shortwave radiation acquired, this is known as the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI). Moreover, pyrheliometers assess the Direct Nominal Irradiance (DNI) – the proportion of orthogonal solar radiation to the incoming rays from the source. And thus, the Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI) can be calculated.
An alternative approach is presented to measure GHI and DNI, which is specifically designed for single-axis and dual-axis solar trackers via a cost-effective substitute that ensures high accuracy. Such data can be used for albedo evaluation, inserted into modelling simulations for validation purposes, or to give an augury of the prospective solar energy performances before installation. The solar insolation instruments aforementioned were mounted onto an aluminium sheet of a specified thickness to withstand wind loading and were placed in plane with the solar modules to give an accurate representation of solar insolation hitting the surface. In addition, the pyrheliometer was held using a fabricated gripped clamp-mount. Constant measurements will then be fed into a data logger while the tracker is moving. Future work can be done in ways of using such instrumental structural setup for frameless bifacial modules and to ensure how the pyrheliometer can always be aligned nominal to the sun and henceforward, an accurate representation of the DHI will be conveyed with the aid of altitude measurements from the tracker algorithm that is already implemented.
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