High albedo daytime radiative cooling for enhanced bifacial PV performance

Abstract

We present a radiative cooling material capable of enhancing albedo while reducing ground surface temperatures beneath fielded bifacial solar panels. Electrospinning a layer of polyacrylonitrile nanofibers, or nanoPAN, onto a polymer-coated silver mirror yields a total solar reflectance of 99 %, an albedo of 0.96, and a thermal emittance of 0.80. The combination of high albedo and high emittance is enabled by wavelength-selective scattering induced by the hierarchical morphology of nanoPAN, which includes both thin fibers and bead-like structures. During outdoor testing, the material outperforms the radiative cooling power of a state-of-the-art control by ∼20 W/m² and boosts the photocurrent produced by a commercial silicon cell by up to 6.4 mA/cm² compared to sand. These experiments validate essential characteristics of a high-albedo radiative-cooling reflector with promising potential applications in thermal and light management of fielded bifacial panels.