Buildings’ envelops integrated photovoltaic Cells, review of research and applications

This paper deals with the topic of buildings’ envelops integration of photovoltaic cells. The PVs cells can be integrated to flat and sloped roofs, walls, windows and solar shading devices. Building components have started showing significant use of BIPV technologies in their applications. Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) offer a technical, economical and aesthetical solution to buildings. Energy demands also can be reduced using BIPV, especially since there are several building surfaces, which are ideally suited to use solar energy. BIPV systems are gradually more being created to make up for the reductions in the design aesthetics and installation expenses In the first part, a literature review is presented, including studies about the commonly used Buildings’ envelope integrated PVs applications and materials. In the second part, the economical feasibility of BIPV is presented, involving, examples of cost of BIPV and the payback period analysis. Finally, this paper will highlight the potential of BIPV for the buildings industry.