What happens if you cover the front of a bifacial cell?

[DanKegel]

I'd like to measure the backside output of a bifacial panel, and the most obvious way would be to cover the front entirely and just measure the output with the back illuminated.

I imagine that the panel is made of bifacial cells where the front and back of each cell are effectively in parallel, and that there's no penalty for illuminating just the back.

Has anyone tried it?

[emartin00]

Never really thought about it, but I suppose you must be right. How else would they work if there was no light getting to the back side?

[SunEagle]

I'd like to measure the backside output of a bifacial panel, and the most obvious way would be to cover the front entirely and just measure the output with the back illuminated.

I imagine that the panel is made of bifacial cells where the front and back of each cell are effectively in parallel, and that there's no penalty for illuminating just the back.

Has anyone tried it?

I would guess that type of panel could actually be considered 2 but they may not be wired in parallel. The Voc & Vmp rating may provide some clue on how the output is wired.

What do you plan to cover the front with? It really needs to be opaque or your back side measurement may be affected due to some light getting to the front side of the panel.

Let us know what it looks like.

[DanKegel]

I'll be using 6 mil black plastic sheeting, and I guess I'll run one test where I cover both front and back to verify zero output.

(EDIT) Wait, covering the front with black might heat up the panel. I guess I'll settle for covering just the back.

I'm writing up the experiment at http://kegel.com/energy/solar/retrofit2/