Overview and analysis of current BIPV products: new criteria for supporting the technological transfer in the building sector

Abstract

The growing demand for nearly-Zero Energy Buildings is rapidly contributing to change the building skin from being a passive barrier towards a sensitive and active interface. Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is a unique solution for delivering clean, safe, affordable and decentralized electricity to people transforming the building surfaces in active solar collectors. Despite photovoltaic (PV) technology and their basic usage are today known to everybody, the particular requirements for building integration have brought to the surface some issues over the years so that BIPV is still a niche market. Starting from this observation, the paper presents the results of an investigation on the current market of BIPV products for roofs and façade. The analysis aimed to identify the relevant possibilities the products today offer and the level of information that the producers make available within the technical description of BIPV systems. After disclosing the actual lack of information in comparison to conventional building products, the authors propose to implement a new "building-based" approach that could support the BIPV market by including a more comprehensive description of the product's quality (today mainly comprising electrical and basic physical features). Such a "building-technology" perspective, also considering the recent normative framework in BIPV field, is expected to encourage the technological transfer of PV in the building sector by facilitating the daily work of architects, installers and the whole value chain.

A Review on Building Integrated Photovoltaic Façade Customization Potentials

“…It has been put forward that the success of the BIPV market will in part be determined by the availability of good customizability and convincing aesthetics [39]. It terms of the need, one aspect mentioned by [76] suggests that standardized products are often not applicable when retrofitting demands flexible dimensions, and custom products have better thermal performance than conventional products [77].…”

“…Reference made to an energy-conscious process design [39] Overview and analysis of current BIPV products: new criteria for supporting the technological transfer in the building sector Possibilities, market options, aesthetic levels; an architectural layering process design approach [43] PV glazing technologies - [36] Building Integrated Photovoltaics: a Concise. Description of the Current State of the Art and Possible Research Pathways Brief mention [37] Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV): review, Potentials, Barriers and Myths…”

“…[39,58] suggest that BIPV designs can follow a systematic design process. This infers that various levels/stages of customization are identifiable; [39] suggests a cell, module, and façade level activity while [58] presents an elemental, compositional, and integrational level of interest. In both representative cases, the idea is to first customize the cell, then the module, and finally the façade.…”

“…Each of these building components provide opportunities for integrating PVs to the building and by extension, for façade customization [36,37,[59][60][61][62]. The main BIPV façade applications extracted from literature [39,43,59,61,63] include curtain walls, glazing, external/shading devices, and innovative applications. Table 2 presents an overview of these applications using representative built examples to describe the advantages and disadvantages of each of these types.…”

“…In two other cases [38,39] a descriptive inventory of several market-ready custom BIPV product applications connecting cell technology and architectural integration is given [38]. Also, details on the possibilities, market options, and aesthetic levels of customizability were presented [39]. Table 1.…”