Photovoltaic (PV) technology has the potential to be integrated on many surfaces in various environments, even on water. Modeling, design, and realization of a floating PV system have more challenges than conventional rooftop or freestanding PV system. In this work, we introduce two innovative concepts for floating bifacial PV systems, describing their modeling, design, and performance monitoring. The developed concepts are retractable and enable maximum energy production through tracking the Sun. Various floating PV systems (monofacial, bifacial with and without reflectors) with different tilts and tracking capabilities are installed on a Dutch pond and are being monitored. Results of the thermal study showed that partially soaking the frame of PV modules into water does not bring a considerable additional yield (+0.17%) and revealed that floating PV modules experience higher temperature special variance compared with land-based systems. Observations showed that the birds' presence has a severe effect on floating PV performance in the short term. Electrical yield investigation concluded that due to low albedo of inland water areas (~6.5%), bifacial PV systems must have reflectors. One-year monitoring showed that a bifacial PV system with reflector and horizontal tracking delivers ~17.3% more specific yield (up to 29% in a clear-sky month) compared with a monofacial PV system installed on land. Ecological monitoring showed no discernable impacts on the water quality in weekly samplings but did show significant impacts on the aquatic plant biomass and periods of low oxygen concentrations.

We report on an advanced modelling approach to accurately predict the energy yield of custom environment / urban integrated photovoltaic systems (E/UIPV). Several submodels are here presented, and their mutual interaction discussed. The flexibility of our software platform allows to exhaustively simulate custom horizons in combination with rigid/flexible PV modules and in presence of albedo component. In this respect, a modelling example predicts AC-side yield with <1% error on annual basis with respect to actual data. In addition, our platform can also deal with colored/bifacial modules and soiling losses for PV energy yield potential or performance prediction.