Fixing No Bifaciality Calculation [SOLVED]

[chudy14]

I’m sharing this because I spent hours struggling with bifaciality not being calculated correctly in my PV design, and I couldn't find a clear solution anywhere.

I was designing a 4m tall carport canopy over a parking lot with asphalt. All my settings seemed correct:
Bifacial modules with 70% bifacial gain
Albedo set to 25% (asphalt)
Properly configured mounted panel settings

Yet, the bifacial gain on the back of the module remained at 0 kWh, no matter what I did.

The Solution

The missing step was creating a 3D polygon—specifically, an arbitrary open surface. Initially, I had placed the mounted panels on an Open Area generated from the map, but this setup didn’t allow bifaciality to be calculated unless the panel inclination was set to an extreme angle where direct sunlight hit the back panel (ignoring albedo effects).

Once I switched to defining the area with a 3D polygon, the bifacial gain started calculating correctly.

Key Takeaway

If you're facing a similar issue, make sure your panels are mounted on a 3D-defined surface (arbitrary open surface) rather than just using a basic Open Area from the map.

Hope this helps someone and saves them the frustration I went through!