Impacts of design configurations and movements of PV attached to building facades on increasing generated renewable energy

Abstract

The increase of energy needs and its impacts on global warming and energy prices made it imperative to utilize various renewable energy sources including PV. Accordingly, there is a need to increase the areas of installing PV on buildings by using facades due to limited roof areas. This paper aims at investigating the impacts of design configurations including positions, dimensions, orientations, areas of PV and movement options to track the sun on increasing the amount of generated renewable energy. This is achieved through introducing various application levels of PV on building facades including small, intermediate and large levels with distinctive design configurations and movement options to develop 92 diverse application scenarios and conduct energy simulation of these scenarios. The obtained results from energy simulation showed that the highest amount of generated renewable energy is 417.68 kWh/m2 and achieved using horizontal axis tracking PV on solid surfaces and windows on East façade. Other application scenarios of PV with considerable amounts of generated renewable energy are determined including the top ten application scenarios. These include 405 kWh/m2 from using horizontal axis tracking PV on solid surfaces or windows on East façade, 399.55 kWh/m2 from using horizontal axis tracking PV on solid surfaces and windows on South façade and 388.4 kWh/m2 from using horizontal axis tracking PV on solid walls on East and South Facades. The results of this paper offer useful recommendations for installing PV on building facades to increase the amounts of generated renewable energy.