Texan 600MW solar farm

[dan_b]

This is interesting - they've decided to spend the extra and put 1.3million bi-facial panels on single-axis trackers. Interesting as I'm surprised the cost outweighs the benefit given the sheer size of the solar farm, and how cheap the panels are relatively speaking these days. Guess they've run the numbers though.

https://electrek.co/2025/01/30/600-mw-t ... rm-hornet/

[AE-NMidlands]

I don't understand

Hornet Solar uses bifacial solar panels mounted on a single-axis tracking system to maximize efficiency.

If they are tracking, where is the need for a bifacial panel?
I have found https://www.deegesolar.co.uk/bifacial_solar_panels/

Bifacial solar panels perform best when installed near highly reflective surfaces. Such as swimming pools glass, sandy, stoney or snowy areas. Although the front of the panel still absorbs the majority of the sunlight, some bifacial models are capable of increasing energy production by up to 30%. The exact amount of extra energy will depend on the environment surrounding the solar panels themselves.

which seems to say that more of the incident light gets used as it would normally have gone straight out of (or been absorbed by) the panel backing.

I could have understood it if they were saying that most of the field was bifacials cheaply mounted vertically on a N-S axis with a proportion of trackers to get the midday output they needed, but surely their set-up is likely to overwhelm their transmission system - unless they really can handle maximum output most of the time...

[Countrypaul]

This site seems to be for the project but light on details: https://www.hornetsolartx.com/