Building-Integrated Photovoltaics: A Technical Guidebook

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is an innovative technology offering a variety of building envelope solutions, materials, and colours for virtually any building surface. These BIPV products generate on-site renewable electricity, turning buildings from energy consumers to producers. BIPV is expected to play an indispensable role in the transition towards decarbonisation and energy resilience of cities, effectively reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Lack of knowledge and guidance on designing BIPV systems has hindered this technology’s widespread adoption and creative applications. As a remedy, this guidebook presents best practices and decision-making processes for efficient and resilient architecture. Featuring more than 50 annotated reference drawings--roofs, solar shadings, rainscreen façades, curtain walls and double skin façades--and 24 international BIPV case studies, the guidebook provides building professionals with the technical knowledge and inspiration to implement BIPV technology in the built environment.

Nuria Martín Chivelet, Ph.D. in Physics, has developed her activity in photovoltaics at the Spanish research center CIEMAT (http: //www.ciemat.es), being involved in more than 30 national and European research projects and with scientific and technical production focusing on characterizing and modeling (BI)PV products and systems (https: //orcid.org/0000-0003-4224-6618). In parallel, she has been a member of several national and international experts’ committees on PV and BIPV, such as the standardization IEC-TC82, CENELEC-CLC/TC 82, and several Tasks within the International Energy Agency PV Power Systems Program (IEA-PVPS) related to BIPV.

Konstantinos (Costa) Kapsis, PhD. Costa Kapsis is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a building scientist and an architectural engineering educator working in the field of high-performance building design, with a focus on electrification of the built environment, advanced building envelope technologies, digital twins, and daylight. Costa has been involved in the design of more than 30 net-zero energy buildings. He is the co-author of several peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and international reports and standards.

Francesco Frontini, Professor graduated in Construction Engineering and Architecture, he collaborated with engineering and architecture firms as a project manager from 2007 to 2010. In 2009 he obtained a PhD developing a new multifunctional BIPV façade for solar control. He worked as a post-doc in the Solar façades group at Fraunhofer ISE (Germany), one of the world’s largest research institutes. Since 2011, he has been working at SUPSI. He is a professor of Innovative Building Technology and Sustainable Design and is responsible for the Sustainability area of the Department of Architecture and Construction. His research activity has always been supported by experimental work on the design of real buildings and solar envelopes. He is a member of the standardisation bodies SIA, CENELEC and ISO. Since 2021, he has been appointed by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy as Co-Manager of the IEA PVPS Task 15.