building integrated photovoltaics

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (Fraunhofer UMSICHT) say their new facade combines PV modules, weather protection, and thermal insulation. It eliminates the need for a substructure and uses insulation made from sustainable raw materials.

A fire broke out at Brussels’ first net-zero energy structure, the Treurenberg building, in late October. The blaze, likely caused by building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) panels on the facade, led to an evacuation, with no injuries reported.

The Chinese manufacturer said the device is based on dense passivating contacts that reduce parasitic light absorption and improve passivation. It used a streamlined manufacturing technique that is reportedly about one-third more effective than TOPCon mainstream technology.

A study by the University of Freiburg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems finds that deploying color-matching solar modules on a building’s roof or facade further increases social acceptance of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).

A European research team has sought to combine for the first time perovskite solar cell technology with textile ceramic in a novel building-integrated photovoltaic device. The result is a solar brick with potential for future commercialiation, according to its creators.

A Belgian-Dutch research team has defined new design guidelines for photovoltaics integrated in buildings or infrastructures. The proposed approach, which was validated through two demonstators, supports the manufacturing of semi-fabricates for integrated photovoltaics applications by enabling effective communication between project developers and module producers.

Scientists from Denmark have examined three façades installed on a mobile office container to conduct building-integrated PV experiments.

Scientists have designed a new building-integrated PV system that uses 30 mm of phase change material on each side of the wall. The array reportedly achieved superior thermoelectric coupling performance compared to reference BIPV systems without PCM.

ClearVue Technologies, an Australia-based supplier of smart building materials, is providing a combination of its building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology and solar cladding panels in a prefabricated house trial trial.

The latest report from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) says that building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) could be key to help decarbonize cities in the Netherlands, but it warns that the needs of the solar and construction sector must be bridged.