Assessment of overall performance of building integrated photovoltaics

Abstract

Recently photovoltaic (PV) is widely used technology in modern buildings as part of the façade. Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) might be transparent or opaque, mounted on the envelope or might be a construction element of the envelope – a window. Energy production and efficiency of 3 different BIPV systems is simulated and economical assessment of the projects is performed. It shows that attractive solution when energy is consumed for own purposes is opaque PV system and also one of the cases with PV window system. PV window is transmitting light into the space at the same time producing electricity and performing as shading of the window. Therefore PV window should be assessed taking into account more criteria than just electricity generated. The effect of PV shading on heating, cooling and lighting energy has to be taken into account. The paper presents analysis of overall performance of PV window based on the simulations and measurements. Results show that even though electricity generation of the window is relatively small, in summer it works as an efficient sun shading thus giving a potential for the reduction of investments for cooling equipment and savings on cooling energy demand.