Bifacial panels and inverter selection
Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2024 7:26 am
Morning, I would like to access the hive mind, with regards to selecting inverters to run with bifacial panels, please.
The first question is how do you determine the full capacity of the panel (front and back) and how does that then relate to an inverter? There seems to be a bit of a dark art to determining the output from the rear panel that I am not yet familiar with.
The second question does mounting bifacial panels require a different approach, all the videos I look at seem to use the standard methods with a rail running across the face of the rear of the panel which must reduce its potential ?
Thirdly do bifacial panels require specialist inverters to get the best output performance ?
Fourthly and slightly pre-determining the probable answer to 1 and 2 above, are they worth the extra cost / effort?
For context I have a south facing gable wall which has a textured render over EWI, the wall is painted magnolia and has a hi albedo on sunny days, the paving adjacent to the wall is a rough stone paver with a Cotswold stone colour finish so another light reflective surface. I am thinking of hanging 4 panels on a free standing vertical frame, the panels would be attached by hinges at the top cross bar allowing the panels to be swung from 90 degrees vertical to 90 degrees horizontal (should the occasion be required) and anything in between to suit the light conditions and season. I reality I see them being at 90 degrees vertical during winter and windy weather and in summer swung up at 30 degrees off the horizontal to catch the sun at good angle. The frame will be secured to and wind forces counter balanced by more gabion baskets which in the recent stormy conditions have performed exceptionally well on the bin store keeping the one mounted panel there secure despite a very exposed position.
The panels would each have their own inverter due to shading issues from a tree that stands opposite (cant take it down yet as the MIL is fond of it), I would add extra batteries to the house stack to soak up the extra production via the existing AC coupled DNO approved Hybrid Solis inverter, at a later date I will probably go down the route of changing the Solis for a larger 5 or 6kW Hybrid inverter to keep pace with the transition from LPG to a fully electric cottage.
Moxi
The first question is how do you determine the full capacity of the panel (front and back) and how does that then relate to an inverter? There seems to be a bit of a dark art to determining the output from the rear panel that I am not yet familiar with.
The second question does mounting bifacial panels require a different approach, all the videos I look at seem to use the standard methods with a rail running across the face of the rear of the panel which must reduce its potential ?
Thirdly do bifacial panels require specialist inverters to get the best output performance ?
Fourthly and slightly pre-determining the probable answer to 1 and 2 above, are they worth the extra cost / effort?
For context I have a south facing gable wall which has a textured render over EWI, the wall is painted magnolia and has a hi albedo on sunny days, the paving adjacent to the wall is a rough stone paver with a Cotswold stone colour finish so another light reflective surface. I am thinking of hanging 4 panels on a free standing vertical frame, the panels would be attached by hinges at the top cross bar allowing the panels to be swung from 90 degrees vertical to 90 degrees horizontal (should the occasion be required) and anything in between to suit the light conditions and season. I reality I see them being at 90 degrees vertical during winter and windy weather and in summer swung up at 30 degrees off the horizontal to catch the sun at good angle. The frame will be secured to and wind forces counter balanced by more gabion baskets which in the recent stormy conditions have performed exceptionally well on the bin store keeping the one mounted panel there secure despite a very exposed position.
The panels would each have their own inverter due to shading issues from a tree that stands opposite (cant take it down yet as the MIL is fond of it), I would add extra batteries to the house stack to soak up the extra production via the existing AC coupled DNO approved Hybrid Solis inverter, at a later date I will probably go down the route of changing the Solis for a larger 5 or 6kW Hybrid inverter to keep pace with the transition from LPG to a fully electric cottage.
Moxi