Analysis and Monitoring Results of a Building Integrated Photovoltaic Façade Using PV Ceramic Tiles in Taiwan

Abstract

Single-crystal silicon-based solar cells laminated with tempered-glass and ceramic tiles for use in a building’s façade have been developed. The optical, thermal, and electrical properties of the proposed PV module are first evaluated, and then a wind-resistance test is carried out to evaluate the feasibility of installing it in Taiwan. The electrical and deflection characteristics of the proposed PV module did not change significantly after a 50 thermal cycling test and a 200-hour humidity-freeze test, based on IEC 61215 and a wind-resistance test. Finally, the electrical power generation ability of the proposed BIPV system with 1 kWp electrical power capacity was examined. Building information modeling software tools were used to simulate the BIPV system and carry out the energy analysis. The simulation results show a very consistent trend with regard to the actual monthly electricity production of the BIPV system designed in this work. The BIPV system was able to produce an accumulative electrical power of 185 kWh during the 6-month experimental period. In addition, the exterior temperature of the demonstration house was about 10°C lower than the surface of the BIPV system, which could reduce indoor temperature.

PV temperature and performance prediction in free-standing, BIPV and BAPV incorporating the effect of temperature and inclination on the heat transfer coefficients and the impact of wind, efficiency and ageing

“…However, an extended validation process applying those simulation models to any other environment and BIPV design has been limited mainly due to the complexity of the simulation models and their use of parameters specific to the particular BIPV design studied. In most of the BIPV, BAPV, BIPV/T works published [15,46,[53][54] the experimental results and the models developed have been compared…”

“…to widely accepted and applicable simple formulas and software such as [11,13,53,55]. While the benefit of a general formula for Tpv prediction is obvious, there is a great necessity for increasing the accuracy of Tpv prediction taking into account important parameters, which are missing from simple widely accepted models.…”

Full-scale evaluation of fire-resistant building integrated photovoltaic systems with different installation positions of junction boxes

“…4–9 Evaluations of the thermal insulation, optical, electrical and wind-resistance properties of BIPV systems (building’s façades) have been reported in the literature in order to promote the use of this technology in Taiwan, as well as analysis of high colour rendering index BIPV window systems. 10,11 Though BIPV systems have been developed in many countries with the aim of realizing zero energy buildings or nearly zero energy buildings, there are still very few studies of fire hazards or the fire-resistant properties of PV systems.

Figure 1.The installation capacity of PV systems in Taiwan.

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Feasibility Study of a Building-Integrated PV Manager to Power a Last-Mile Electric Vehicle Sharing System

“…Solar energy is an abundant source of renewable/sustainable energy, which has an enormous potential in reducing the footprint of the greenhouse gases [2]. The integration of photovoltaic systems into buildings (BIPV), as it is shown in Figure 1, is proving to be an increasingly endorsed solution, and this is the market segment with the greatest growth potential in the photovoltaic industry [3], replacing a significant amount of the electricity that would otherwise be generated by burning fossil fuels [4]; BIPV will gain increasing attention of the building energy efficiency market in the twenty-first century [5].…”