Ground albedo ρ
Rear-side yield
starts at the
ground.
A bifacial module can only harvest what the ground sends back. Bare earth returns about 15% of the light that lands on it. Sunplus is a reflective mat that turns the inter-row into a second sky — and across ten sites it has lifted annual production 8–11%.
Illustrative model, linear in ρ and calibrated so that a white-membrane ground plane returns the 8–11% field result Photon Planet reports. Site-specific gain depends on module bifaciality, row pitch, tilt, height and soiling, and should be confirmed by a PVsyst study.
The surface doing the work is the one nobody specifies.
The mat covers the gap the modules cannot shade. In this photograph the sky appears twice: once overhead, and once in the membrane — which is exactly the light the rear face is there to collect.
- Surface
- White reflective membrane
- Position
- Full inter-row width
- Electrical interface
- None
Irradiance W/m²
Three things have to happen for a bifacial module to earn its premium.
-
Incident
≈1,000 W/m²
Light has to reach the ground
Between rows, most of the plane-of-array irradiance never touches a cell. It lands on dirt. On a typical fixed-tilt layout that inter-row strip is the largest single surface on the site.
-
Reflected
0.15 → 0.75
The ground has to send it back
This is the variable you can actually change. Bare soil returns roughly 0.15 of what hits it and absorbs the rest as heat. A reflective mat raises that figure several times over, without touching the array itself.
-
Captured
8 – 11%
The rear face has to be there to catch it
You have already paid for the rear face. Raising albedo is the cheapest way to increase what it sees — no re-racking, no re-stringing, no change to the electrical design.
Sunplus is at its most valuable where natural reflectivity is worst: dark or wet soils, gravel, and regions with lower direct sun.
Return AUD
Run the numbers on your own array.
For a MW array producing kWh/kWp a year, sold at $/kWh, an uplift of % is worth:
- Additional generation
- 152,000 kWh / yr
- Additional revenue, year 1
- $15,200
- Additional revenue, 10 years
- $152,000
Undiscounted and before module degradation, soiling and escalation. Change any figure to match your own model.
Product Sunplus
Supplied on the roll. Laid by hand.
Sunplus ships as a rolled membrane, cut to the inter-row width of your layout and anchored at the edges. It goes down after racking and before or after module installation, and it does not interface with the electrical system at all.
The datasheet covers
- Total & diffuse reflectance
- Roll width and run length
- Thickness and areal weight
- UV and weathering performance
- Tensile strength and tear resistance
- Fire classification
- Anchoring and edge detail
- Cleaning and O&M
- 10-year warranty terms
Deployed MW
Ten sites, five countries.
Sunplus mats are in service in Oman, Abu Dhabi, Japan, China and India — including a 500 MW installation in Oman commissioned in October 2021, extended by a further 147 MW in January 2024.
-
China -
Japan -
Oman — IBRI Phase II -
India -
647MW
Oman, IBRI Phase II — 500 MW commissioned October 2021, extended by 147 MW in January 2024.
- Oman
- Abu Dhabi
- Japan
- China
- India
Enquiry Sydney, AEST
Tell us about the site.
Send the location and capacity and we will come back with the datasheet, an indicative roll schedule and a delivered price.