Maximizing annual yield of bifacial photovoltaic noise barriers

In this work we consider noise barriers with integrated photovoltaic modules. The novelty is that bifacial modules are considered. A full scale bifacial photovoltaic noise barrier was built and its power output was monitored. In addition we developed an advanced numerical model for predicting this power output for given weather conditions. Excellent agreement was found between the measured power output and the model prediction. Next we used this model to demonstrate the effects of the orientation, tilt, location, cell position and bypass-diode configuration on the annual energy yield of bifacial photovoltaic noise barriers.