Talking About BIPV

Reaching a consensus on what building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) is and how it differs from traditional rooftop photovoltaics is one of the challenges that the emerging BIPV industry must deal with if it wants to move from a niche to a mainstream.

With this in mind, a group of experts from the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Generation System Program (IEA PVPS) prepared a report that aims to integrate the fragmented development of different regions into a set of clear standards and clearly define the functions of different products. In terms of its role as building materials and energy generators.

The title of the report is the classification of BIPV applications; it can be found on the IEA PVPS website. "By considering the main technical subsystems of the multifunctional building skin, the main features in terms of function, performance, form, structure and energy-related aspects are organized into five levels from application categories to materials," the report author said.

The five categories defined in the report are derived from the categories outlined in IEC Standard 63092-1 "Building Photovoltaics-Part 2: Requirements for Building Integrated Photovoltaic Systems". The IEC categories define different types of BIPV systems, based on the accessibility of the integration area and the interior of the building. IEA PVPS further decomposes these into "systems"-representing the entire building unit, "modules" representing energy and active elements in the building, "components" representing the components that make up these elements, and "materials" representing basic materials.

At the system level, the report points out three main types of BIPV systems, which are divided into roofs, facades and external integrated equipment. They further subdivided each of them into smaller parts—for example, the “roof” was divided into discrete roofs, continuous roofs, and atriums/skylights. Then according to the transparency of the elements, the report's module-level categories are divided into three.

By clearly defining the different system elements in this way, the report hopes to combine the interests of photovoltaic system designers and architects-this is one of the key challenges for the development of BIPV. "We hope that this paper will provide the first milestone to encourage comprehensive perspectives and interdisciplinary efforts at the core of the BIPV field, and it will overcome some of the obstacles that still hinder all innovations and effective communication of cooperation. Stakeholders," said the author .