solar facade

C2F has developed a building-integrated PV (BIPV) facade made of aluminum that purportedly limits the impact of hot and cold weather, while also improving solar module performance.

Solarix, a building-integrated PV (BIPV) manufacturer in the Netherlands, has developed a white variant of its facade solar panels. It says demand for white BIPV products is rising across Europe, especially among architects.

Scientists in Singapore have built a plug-and-play, multi-layered, building-integrated PV wall that can be installed without scaffolds. The system has a light-gauge steel support structure, with a system to block air and rainwater at the wall connection.

Building-integrated photovoltaics provider Mitrex said its system will provide St. Mary’s University student residence with a power-producing microgrid.

A 163 kW solar façade is powering the new building of Basel’s Office for Environment and Energy in Switzerland. Swiss manufacturer Megasol provided special modules on 3D fused glass for the vertical BIPV installation.

The frameless design of the 50 kW facade was made possible by a concealed suspension technology that, according to its creators, eliminates the need for additional edging at the edge of the module. The installation was built with 135 W CIGS solar modules.

Soltech Energy has installed a 60 kW solar facade on the wall of a garage in Sweden that hosts 300 EV-charging posts. It features a steel structure to facilitate the flow of air.

The new panel has a nominal power of 395 W and a claimed temperature coefficient of 0.28% degrees Celsius.

Taiwan-based Heliartec has deployed a solar facade on a 3D-printed concrete house in Belgium. It said it installed the solar facade with the “circular construction” philosophy in mind.

Dutch startup Solar Visuals and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) have developed new “mimic design” facade modules that reproduce the features of building surfaces. Lenneke Slooff-Hoek, a senior scientist for TNO, told pv magazine that the panels can be made in any size or color at 13% efficiency, adding that they have a partly transparent colored layer made of small dots.