Abstract
The demand for energy in buildings is a worldwide research subject due to its importance in the global electric load share. Besides, photovoltaic conversion to generate electricity locally is one of the ways to meet that demand. This work aims to evaluate the application of semi-transparent photovoltaic glass on a skylight of a commercial building and estimate electricity consumption and production using computational simulation with EnergyPlus. The opening size was set as a variable parameter. Its performance was compared to an ordinary skylight and opaque modules under the same conditions for three different Brazilian bioclimatic zones. Results show that the area's change provided significant differences in generation and less important ones in consumption. Among the bioclimatic zones, the building presented the lowest consumption and the highest generation for all configurations in the coldest zone, making it the best region for net electricity, i.e., purchased from a utility. Comparing semi-transparent with opaque modules, the latter produced much more energy, but consumption was reduced by an average of 28% in favour of the photovoltaic glass. The main conclusion is that the use of photovoltaic technology in a semi-transparent glass is promising regarding the integration of generators to the building, but the efficiency rates need to increase to bring it closer to opaque modules in performance.
Highlights
Residential, commercial, and governmental buildings are responsible for 50.5% of the electricity consumption and 14.8% of the consumption of all types of energy in Brazil (EMPRESA DE PESQUISA ENERGÉTICA, 2019)
The influence of variation of the semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) glass area was verified by comparing the energy and thermal performance of this system with an ordinary skylight – equipped with safety glass – and with a whole opaque roof covered with PV modules for three Brazilian bioclimatic zones (ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE NORMAS TÉCNICAS, 2005a)
Considering the analysed models, BZ1 provided a better economic result compared to the other bioclimatic zones studied, especially for the configurations with 40 PV modules, which required the lowest amount of net energy, i.e., purchased from a utility
Summary
Residential, commercial, and governmental buildings are responsible for 50.5% of the electricity consumption and 14.8% of the consumption of all types of energy in Brazil (EMPRESA DE PESQUISA ENERGÉTICA, 2019). Photovoltaic (PV) generation is, a reasonable alternative source to apply to Brazilian buildings. Opaque modules applied on roofs are the predominant type, but there is room for more options. This work aims to analyse electricity consumption and generation through semi-transparent photovoltaic (STPV) glass on the skylight of a hypothetical commercial building. The influence of variation of the STPV glass area was verified by comparing the energy and thermal performance of this system with an ordinary skylight – equipped with safety glass – and with a whole opaque roof covered with PV modules for three Brazilian bioclimatic zones (ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DE NORMAS TÉCNICAS, 2005a). The climatic complexity of these three zones justifies the choice in order to maximise research results
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