Abstract
The business model of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is developing expeditiously and BIPV will soon be recognised as a building envelope material for the entire building skins, among other alternatives such as brick, wood, stone, metals, etc. This paper investigates the effect of climate on the solar radiation components on building skins and BIPV materials in the northern hemisphere. The selected cities are Stavanger in Norway, Bern in Switzerland, Rome in Italy, and Dubai in the UAE. The study showed that for all the studied climates, the average incident radiation on the entire building skins is slightly more than the average incident radiation on the east or west facades, regardless of the orientations of the building facades. Furthermore, the correlation between solar radiation components and different BIPV technologies is discussed in this paper. It is also found that when it comes to the efficiency of different BIPV cells, the impact of the climate on some of the BIPV technologies (such as DSC and OSC) is much more significant than others (such as c-Si, mc-Si and CIGS). The evidence from this study suggests that in climates with higher diffuse radiation-or with more overcast days per year-the contribution of IR radiation decreases. Therefore, the efficiency of BIPV materials that their spectral responses are dependent on the IR radiation (like Si and CIGS) in such a climate would drop down meaningfully. On the other hand, the DSC and OSC solar cells could be a good option for cloudy climates since they have more stable performance, even in such a climate. Although, their efficiency compared to other BIPV materials such as Si-based BIPV solar cells is still significantly less thus far.
Highlights
Renewable energy technologies in urban areas have been at the forefront of research and development due to concerns related to the environment as well as energy independence and high fossil fuel costs
The energy of each photon is inversely proportional to the wavelength of the associated wave and the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) materials are ionised by photons with energies higher than their bandgap
This study has gone some way towards enhancing our understanding of solar radiation components on building skins with different orientations in different climates
Summary
Renewable energy technologies in urban areas have been at the forefront of research and development due to concerns related to the environment as well as energy independence and high fossil fuel costs. BIPV refers to photovoltaic materials that are used to substitute traditional building materials in parts of the building skins, such as the facades, roofs, or skylights, to generate clean energy from sunshine [1]. It must play a role in the building envelope that contains at least one additional function in addition to electricity generation. During the past ten years, much more information has become available on the feasibility of the BIPV roof as well as BIPV on the south, east, and west façade Along with this growth in the valuable insights into the feasibility of the BIPV system on building skins, there is an increasing concern over the feasibility of the BIPV on the untraditional orientations of building skins for BIPV applications.
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