BIPV product overview for solar facades and roofs

After several turbulent years, the market for Photovoltaics (PV) now entered a more mature phase. Prices have stabilized, market volumes show a healthy growth and national support schemes are being reduced or redefined. At the same time we see an interesting market segment emerging: Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). It is expected that the European BIPV market will experience a rapid growth in the years to come. Its key market driver is the European Directive 2010/31/EU [1]. In BIPV applications, photovoltaic modules, available as flat or flexible surfaces, realized with cells or laminates, are integrated into any element of the building envelope. Due to their features (size, flexibility, shape and appearance), BIPV is particularly suitable for being “designed”. In fact, these photovoltaic elements can be used together with materials that are common in architecture, such as glass or metal, in opaque as well as in semitransparent surfaces. This is particularly true for roof systems where solar cells are incorporated in conventional building components such as shingles or terracotta tiles. Manufacturers today can provide the building sector with a variety of interesting products, ready to be used by architects and planners. Nevertheless, adoption and application of BIPV by the building sector is relatively slow. Its potential is not well known by architects, and from the economical point of view, its affordability is not sufficiently demonstrated. The purpose of this report is to inform architects, stakeholders and technicians with a comprehensive overview on the capabilities, potentials, specifications and strengths of PV in the building skin. We present a general overview on the available systems, prices, technologies and application ranges. The report concludes with
some leading project examples. This report is the collaborative work between the Swiss BIPV Competence Centre of SUPSI (Switzerland) and the Solar Energy Application Centre (SEAC, The Netherlands). The Swiss BiPV Competence Centre of SUPSI was created in 2005 within the Institute for Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment (ISAAC). It aims to combine the competences of the department of Architecture of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) with those of ISAAC, offering a new and appropriate approach to photovoltaics for architects. Applied research, training and professional advice are the pillars on which it founds its activities. The www.bipv.ch website, supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, is one of the communication platforms of the Swiss BiPV Competence Centre. Here you can find essential information concerning PV technology integration in buildings and different projects realized both in Switzerland and abroad. Moreover, one has access to a comprehensive overview of manufacturers, suppliers and installers covering a wide range of BIPV solutions. The Solar Energy Application Centre (SEAC) is a cooperation of knowledge institutes in The Netherlands, founded in 2012 on the initiative of ECN, TNO and Holland Solar. The scope of SEAC is the field of solar energy systems & applications, which includes photovoltaic systems and solar thermal applications. The technical
expertise of the SEAC is strongly focused on three key R&D areas: benchmarking, field testing and technofinancial modeling of solar energy systems & applications. The SEAC covers these and other topics in close cooperation with ECN, TNO, Utrecht University, Technical University Delft, Technical University Eindhoven, Wageningen University and Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.