Most solar panels only convert less than 25% of the sunlight into usable energy. Bifacial solar panels aim to improve their efficiency by absorbing sunlight that reflects off the nearby ground.

Experiments show that the temperature of the solar panel surface deteriorates the performance by reducing its efficiency. This research aims to model each layer's internal and external temperatures to properly analyze how the panel heats up as sunlight shines on the panel. We hypothesize that understanding will assist us in cooling the panel efficiently without sacrificing efficiency. The thermal modeling was performed using Ansys-Thermal, requiring the input of the solar panel’s geometry and the layers within the PV Bifacial Solar Panel (JJN-Bifacial-200W), such as AR Coating, emitter layer, N-type wafer, and the aluminum back surface. Data related to these layers served as input values for the modeling, including the dimensions of various layers and corresponding thermal properties like thermal conductivities, density, and specific heat. The boundary conditions employed in stagnant air include heat flux at the top of the aluminum frame and glass surface, convection on the top and the frame (h=5W/m2K), convection on the back (h=1.5W/m2K), and the emissivity of the glass (ε = 0.85). For bifacial solar panels, the heat flux at the back sheet was determined using albedo values of the reflective surface. Computational results show the panel reaching temperatures from 40-50ºC after being exposed to indoor conditions with 400W lights shining on the panel for an hour, which implies a drop of about 15% in efficiency using a Pmpp value of 0.5%/ºC. These values are being used to validate experimental data where multiple K-type thermocouples were used to register temperature data on both surfaces of the Solar panel. Retested and verified results will be presented at the conference.