The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Bifacial Solar Cell Industry

Innovative Business Models

• Why:

  • The innovativeness of bifacial solar panels results from their dual-side light absorption capability. Unlike monofacial technology, these solar panels absorb indirect light from the rear side, which makes them suitable for new value propositions.
  • This technology influences operational strategies by optimizing land use and reducing the cost of electricity production during the installation’s lifespan.
• Frost Perspective:
  • Bifacial solar panels overcome monofacial panels’ lack of versatility and lower energy yield by absorbing the reflected light from surfaces. This makes them apt for higher altitudes where solar energy previously did not yield as much, creating new business opportunities.
  • When monofacial energy yield is minimal in tropical winters, bifacial technology offers the highest energy yield. This suggests a consistently higher energy yield throughout the year.

Transformative Mega Trends

• Why:
  • The widespread implementation of bifacial panels will accelerate the global transition to renewable energy across businesses and communities.
  • A bifacial panel’s dual energy absorption feature can enable resiliency in power generation and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
• Frost Perspective:
  • Higher energy yields at lower costs offer better chances for communities in tropical and temperate regions to transition to greener and more sustainable forms of energy, which is especially possible with increasing government subsidies for advanced solar technologies such as bifacial.
  • Industry leaders like LONGi Solar, Jinko Solar, and LG are at the forefront of developing bifacial panels with record-breaking efficiencies. This suggests a larger push toward and demand for more advanced solar technologies, even from the demand generation side, and ensures stakeholders can achieve their environmental, social, and governance targets.

Industry Convergence

• Why:

  • The orientation flexibility, higher energy yield, and aesthetic appearance provide opportunities to integrate bifacial solar panels across various segments.
  • These features enable the deployment of these panels at multiple scales (e.g., from traditional rooftop arrays to vertical installations on walls or fences).
• Frost Perspective:
  • The structural design of bifacial solar panels unlocks innovative opportunities for their use in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Their glass-glass design offers an aesthetic appearance, enabling their use in facades and canopies that provide shade. Bifacial panels' reduced weight creates a stronghold for integration into BIPVs in the construction industry.
  • Bifacial panels’ vertical integration into agrivoltaics enables them to generate electricity while allowing crops of various heights to grow in the remaining 90% of the farm.

Scope of Analysis

• The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) stated that solar energy dominated the 295 Gigawatt (GW) installed renewable energy capacity in 2022, occupying 65% of installations. Solar energy has gained popularity because of continuous advancements resulting in cost-effective modules. However, solar energy has faced limitations associated with factors such as space efficiency, energy yield, and performance dependency on direct sunlight. Bifacial solar is an upcoming segment within solar energy that enables improvement over conventional solar panels.
• In 2019, bifacial technology occupied less than 15% of the solar market share. By 2022, bifacial solar panels held nearly 30% of the solar panel market. With the decreasing cost, it will achieve over 70% share in the solar industry by 2030. Most advanced solar panels are convertible into bifacial solar modules with few modifications in the manufacturing process, so the bifacial solar classification trend aligns with the advanced solar technology trend. As a result, passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC), passivated emitter rear totally diffused cells (PERT), passivated emitter with rear locally diffused cells (PERL), heterojunction technology (HJT), interdigitated back contact (IBC), and tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) are the most advanced commercialized bifacial solar technology.
• One of the main challenges of bifacial solar power is its higher upfront cost. However, its solar energy production at scale can lead to a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE) during the lifespan of solar power installation. Improvements in the manufacturing and design of advanced solar cell technologies have empowered modules with transparent back sheets and glass-glass module configurations. Stakeholders in the bifacial solar segment ensure integrative and diverse applications for bifacial solar energy, especially in the agrivoltaics and BIPV segments, which have facilitated bifacial panels' large-scale production in recent years.

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Segmentation

Advanced Bifacial Solar Technologies

• PERC
• PERT
• PERL
• TOPCon
• HJT
• IBC

Growth Drivers

High power conversion efficiency than conventional solar power: Bifacial solar panels absorb light from the front and rear sides, unlike monofacial solar panels. This dual-sided light absorption allows them to outperform monofacial panels by achieving higher power conversion efficiencies by an average of 10%–20%. Integrating bifacial technology with advanced solar techniques such as PERC enhances these efficiencies.

Higher performance in low light conditions: Monofacial solar energy production peaks when sunlight hits the panel directly on a typical day. Energy production dips in the mornings and evenings because of the lack of direct sunlight. However, bifacial solar panels achieve peaks during these times because of the reflected light. With trackers, these bifacial solar panels can produce more energy than monofacial solar panels for longer durations, especially under low light conditions and in cloudy weather.

Low spatial requirements: A major downside of monofacial solar panels is their extensive area requirements. Bifacial solar panels are a great alternative, as they produce more power per unit area than monofacial solar panels because of their bifaciality, which is especially important in the current context of increasing urbanization, where space comes at a premium price. Bifacial panels’ design supports vertical installation, making them economically viable for uses such as agrivoltaics and noise barriers along highways.

Growth Restraints

 Limited growth resulting from high initial costs: Monofacial and bifacial solar panels showcase an average 14%–22% gap in upfront costs because bifacial panels require transparent back sheets or dual glass design to allow light to pass through from the rear side. These materials are more expensive than the opaque backs in monofacial panels. Bifacial panels require additional planning, equipment, and expertise to mount and install the solar panels in the right orientation to avoid issues such as shading (i.e., obstructions that block sunlight), which increases operations’ initial costs.

Unpredictability in power output: Bifacial solar panels’ dual-sided nature results in complexity in the power output measurement because the amount of sunlight reaching the rear side varies significantly based on several factors, including ground reflectivity (albedo), which different surfaces, such as grass, soil, and concrete, can influence. Installation variability includes the height above the ground and tilt angle, which is crucial in determining how much reflected light reaches the panel’s back. As the same panel might perform differently in different environments, it is challenging to accurately predict and optimize the energy output.

The heaviness of bifacial solar panels limits their application: Most bifacial solar panels use a dual-glass design to harness light from the front and rear. This glass-on-glass structure is heavier than the single glass layer in monofacial panels. To reduce the weight, some companies replace glass with transparent back sheet materials, which are still heavier than monofacial panels. This increased weight might limit the applicability of bifacial panels in some scenarios. For example, deploying monofacial panels on older buildings with limited load-bearing capacity may be suitable.