Testing Facilities
BICAN (Bifacial CANopie Testing Facility)
The BIfacial CANopie (BICAN) testing facility is designed to study the performance of bifacial modules when applied as PV canopies on rooftops. The experimental setup consists of a support structure that holds: ten bifacial PV modules of two different models manufactured by LG and TRINA SOLAR, two of them used as reference modules; four sensors for measuring the frontal incoming irradiance, and eight calibrated cells for measuring the rear irradiance at different points of the array.
The array’s azimuth is 180° (South), and the tilt angle is around 20°. In the reference modules (one for each model), the bypass diodes have been extracted to separate the current of each strip. Therefore, the reference modules measure the front, rear, and total irradiance separately by blocking each strip selectively. The I-V curves of each module and the meteorological variables are recorded from sunrise to sunset. Data collection started at the end of November 2022.
Facility Rear VIEW
Facility Frontal View
Scheme Of The Facility With The Position Of All Modules And Sensors
Journal Articles
Renewable Energy
On the use of reference modules in characterizing the performance of bifacial modules for rooftop canopy applications
Jesús Polo, Miguel Alonso-Abella, Ana Marcos, Carlos Sanz-Saiz, Nuria Martín-Chivelet, 2024