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Cover glass used in photovoltaic panels plays an important role in light harvesting and in turn panel performance. In this paper, the effects on panel performance of surface antireflection (AR) coating and of micropatterns on cover glass were systematically studied by ray tracing simulation. It was found that inner surface patterns of glass have negligible effects on the optical and electrical properties of panels. Both AR film and front surface patterns benefit panel performances. A 45° pyramidal pattern is able to suppress surface reflection and avoid an induced second reflection at the front surface as well as total internal reflection at the glass-air interface. The dependence of the incident angles of light on performance was also examined for the different structured panels. It was found that pyramidal microstructure leads to better performance when the light is irradiated at angles from 0-10° and 60-80°, while AR film is superior at 20-50°. A combination of pyramidal micropatterns and AR film can increase daily generated electricity by 5.6%, in comparison to a panel with bare flat glass.