Electrical Revolution: Effect of Albedo on Solar Panel Energy Output

What is Albedo in Solar Panel?

The solar panel not only absorbs the incident radiation but they also reflect a significant percentage. Most of the solar panel converts 23% of solar radiation into electricity, but the average solar panel efficiency is around 15 – 18%. How can we increase solar panel efficiency?

Here the Albedo help in the case.

The albedo is defined as ratio between the reflected and incident radiation (total global radiation) on solar panel.

A = E_r / E_g

Where

E_r = Reflected radiation

E_g = Incident or total global radiation.

The Albedo value depends upon characteristics of solar panel material. Light coloured material such as silver foil has higher albedo as compared to dark body or glass. Sometimes, the location of solar panel also plays significant role in case of Bifacial solar panel.

The value of Albedo refers to reflection of incident radiation from solar panel.
The value of albedo lies between zero to one.
The zero value of albedo signifies solar panel surface is entirely black and body absorbs radiation to maximum capacity whereas one value means solar panel surface is highly reflective.
The albedo in the bifacial solar panel increases the conversion efficiency because the solar rays are absorbed on both sides of solar panel.

Important points for Albedo

Higher albedo means greater reflectivity
Low albedo means greater absorption and low reflectivity
0% albedo means no reflection
100% albedo means highly reflective
Light colour of surface means high albedo
Dark colour of surface means low albedo

Factors affecting Albedo

The following factors affecting albedo value

Solar elevation
Ageing of solar panel
Rain
Cloud cover

Value of Albedo for Different Surface

Sr. No.	Surface	Albedo (% of reflected light)
1	Snow	40 – 98%
2	Ice	30 – 38%
3	Water	6 – 8%
4	White sand	58 – 62%
5	Sand	21 – 42%
6	Soil	21 – 35%
7	Grass	10 – 15%
8	Concrete	20 – 40%
9	Ashpalt	9 – 19%