This study looks at 15 months of albedo (surface reflectivity) measurements at the Technical University of Denmark. Researchers used high-resolution instruments to study how different surfaces—green vegetation, dry vegetation, gravel, and snow—affect solar panel performance, especially bifacial panels that collect sunlight from both sides.
The findings show that the type of surface has a big impact on energy output. For example, panels above green vegetation showed stronger effects on their backside performance compared to snow. Systems on single-axis trackers performed better than fixed-tilt systems because they received more diffuse light from the sky.
The study also found that a simple vegetation index can predict these effects and that using a few key wavelengths is enough to capture seasonal changes in albedo. To help the solar community, the researchers made their data freely available for further use.
