pv magazine test: March 2024 Results
By George Touloupas
This article was originally published in pv magazine – May 2024 edition. Learn more about the pv magazine test here.
George Touloupas, senior director of technology and quality at Clean Energy Associates, analyzes the March 2024 test results from the outdoor installation in Xi’an, China.
Due to system maintenance, we removed the March 1 data, meaning only 30 days of results were collected. The first chart to the right shows the meteo station data (irradiance and ambient temperature) for March 2024. The average bifacial boost is 7.0% for the month. Bifacial boost is defined as the relative advantage of the average specific energy yield of all bifacial products compared to the average specific energy yield of all monofacial passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) products.
Figure 1: Daily temperature and irradiance data - March 2024
The bifacial boost fell from the February peak of 10.35% to 7%, which was due to the high reflectance of the patches of snow that were lying on the ground. This will continue to rise, peaking in the summer months when the sun reaches it maximum elevation and there is less shading of the ground.
Table 1: Bifacial boost - November 2023 to March 2024
Table 2: Specific energy-yield ranking of n-type bifacial (TOPCon and HJT) modules - March 2024
Table 3: Specific energy-yield ranking of bifacial PERC modules - March 2024
Table 4: Specific energy-yield ranking of monofacial modules - March 2024
Energy yield measurements:
The energy yield comparison among various technologies, including bifacial boost, is analyzed using products installed after the beginning of 2019.
The energy yield is given in Wh/Wp and calculated by dividing the energy produced by the module by the Pmax at STC of the module. This Pmax is the maximum STC power after a process of stabilization.
The results are grouped in categories, per solar module type.
The bifacial boost depends on a number of parameters: the bifaciality factor, the installation geometry, the albedo of the ground, the sun angle and diffuse irradiance. The ground in this case is gray gravel.
Figure 2: Specific energy yield of n-type bifacial (TOPCon and HJT), bifacial PERC, and monofacial modules - March 2024
Energy yield related to top performer in each category.
Figure 3: Relative yield of different technologies - March 2024
Test cooperation
pv magazine test is a cooperative effort involving pv magazine, CEA, Gsolar and Hoymiles. All testing procedures are carried out at Gsolar’s test laboratory in Xi’an, China. CEA supervises these tests and designed both the indoor and outdoor testing procedures.
