Best Practices for the Optimization of Bifacial Photovoltaic Tracking Systems

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Bifacial photovoltaic (PV) tracking systems, where bifacial PV modules are mounted to moveable racks that rotate the modules to follow the Sun, are the main utility-scale PV system configuration being currently deployed across the world. Today, over 90% of modules sold use bifacial cells and over 60% of the market share of systems installed use single-axis trackers. The popularity of such system designs can be traced to the financial benefits of such systems. Typical tracker gains of 15-20% and bifacial gains of 2-10% are additive and these systems provide the lowest levelized cost of electricity in about 90% of the world. This report provides an overview of current best practices to optimize the performance of such systems. The authors are international experts on these topics and have reviewed recent literature and industry standards for this report. In addition, 16 tracker companies (>87% of global market share from 2012-2021) and owners/operators of more than 13 GW of PV systems around the world were surveyed
to learn about real world experience. Additionally, a blind modeling round robin exercise was run to evaluate the state of the art in simulating bifacial tracking system performance.