Thermal and Optical Performance of Semi-Transparent BIPV Windows in High-Rise Office Buildings: A Case Study in the UK

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Abstract Semi-transparent building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) windows replace the external building glazing, allowing power to be generated as part of the existing building envelope. Due to the replacing of the BIPV windows, both thermal and optical performance of a building are worth exploring. This paper presents the results of a simulation study investigating the effects of applying BIPV windows to an existing office building within the UK, with a view to assessing the thermal performance, daylighting condition and BIPV electrical production capacity. It was considered on a typical floor of the office building, consisting of an open plan office space, two meeting rooms and a kitchen suite. A baseline scenario without BIPV window was modelled for comparison, giving recommendations to the viability of the BIPV window in terms of the overall performance. Basically, the use of the BIPV window resulted an annual cooling load reduction of 16.3% compared to the baseline. Heating loads were also reduced but only by 1.89%, while lighting energy usage was slightly increased due to a significantly worse performance in daylighting condition in the open plan office when applying the BIPV window. Specifically, daylight factor dropped over 50% in the office area, which, however, was already poor to begin with. The annual electricity generation of the BIPV window was little with only 902 kWh. This study can be a reference for future research on thermal and optical performance of high-rise office buildings using semi-transparent BIPV windows.