WORLD OVERVIEW OF BUILDING-INTEGRATED PHOTOVOLTAICS

Steven J. Strong, President Solar Design Associates, Inc., Harvard, MA 01451-0242 USA

ABSTRACT

There is a growing consensus that distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems will be among those applications to first reach widespread commercialization in the generation of power on the utility grid. Chief among these distributed applications are PV power systems for individual buildings. Interest in the building integration of photovoltaics, where the PV modules actually become an integral part of the building, often serving as the exterior weathering skin, is growing world-wide. With reduced installation costs, improved aesthetics and all the benefits of distributed generation, building-integrated PV systems are a prime candidate for early market penetration. Product development is proceeding in three general areas: Integral roof modules; roofing tiles and shingles; and integral modules for vertical facades. This paper will cover residential and commercial applications with examples of the direct integration of PV elements into residential and commercial buildings using built examples from the US, Europe and Japan.
INTRODUCTION

over time without losing the investment in earlier installations, and they can be physically distributed over a wide geographical area and fielded on both new and existing structures, minimizing their installation impact and cost of land and power transmission and distribution systems. Architectural use of PV typically involves crystalline silicon PV modules and amorphous thin-films deposited on glass, ceramic, stainless steel, or other appropriate materials. Crystalline silicon PV has the advantage of higher conversion efficiencies of light energy to electricity, and the drawback that it is rigid and not always architecturally appropriate. Thin-film PV has advantages that include deposition on unusually shaped materials and selective deposition that allows varied transmission of light-looking much like architecturally tinted glazings-making it an ideal replacement for conventional building materials. The drawback of thin-film PV, particularly amorphous silicon, is that its conversion efficiencies are much lower than those of crystalline silicon. However, in building-integrated systems, where the PV materials replace conventional building materials, this may not necessarily be a disadvantage. There is a growing consensus that distributed PV systems, providing electricity at the point of use, will be the first PV application to reach widespread commercialization. Chief among these distributed applications are PV power systems for individual buildings. Interest in the building integration of PV, where the elements actually become an integral part of the building, often serving as the exterior weathering skin, is growing worldwide.

The last two decades have brought significant changes to the building design profession. Economic, environmental, and aesthetic pressures have converged to point up the critical role design professionals play in the development of the physical infrastructure and its ultimate impacts on the global environment, national security, local health and safety, and the corporate bottom line. By designing buildings to minimize waste and generate power rather than just consume it, architects aire moving beyond the goal of simply creating buildings that are aesthetically pleasing, toward an ethic of environmentally and socially responsible design. These buildings, rather than merely using less conventional fuel and creating less pollution, will rely on renewable resources to produce some and, ultimately, all of their own energy without creating any pollution (see Figs. 1 and 2).
PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGIES

HISTORY

While the solution to problems as complex as energy generation and security requires the integration of many diverse resources, one technology, photovoltaics (PV), offers the chance to produce that most universal energy, electricity, through a semiconductor process using no moving parts, no fuel other than sunlight, and creating no pollutants. Ultimately modular, PV systems can be expanded

Following on the heels of the major energy cost and supply disruptions of the 1970s, designers, engineers, and policy makers began looking seriously at renewable energy and conservation as solutions to problems of cost and security. These same concerns helped mobilize the general public. Then, as conventional energy supplies stabilized and prices dropped, public and political support to pursue these solutions waned, and the anticipated market penetration for these technologies was slowed. However, in the late 1980s and early 199Os, public and political concerns over pollution and global climate change produced a renewed interest in these technologies. Groups associated with utility power production and commercial and residential building energy use took particular interest.

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Fig. 1. The Lord residence, on the coast of Maine, USA, includes a utility-intertied, roof-integrated 4.25 kWp PV array, comprising 16 large-area modules. This system is exchanging power with the utility under a Net Metering agreement.

Fig. 2. A commercial building in Freiburg, Germany, with a faGade of structural glazing elements incorporating PV modules and operable view glass in a prefabricated assembly; the roof and faGade modules total 18.5 kWp.

Early projects integrating PV into residential and commercial buildings involved mostly government-financedor supported opportunities to field-test and demonstrate the technology. In the United States, projects included the Carlisle House (7.5 kWp), the Georgetown University Intercultural Center (325 kWp), and the three regional Residential Experimental Stations, which served as test beds for numerous technologies and innovative designs. On a more ambitious scale, electric utilities have followed with several projects, including the 100 kW of distributed PV systems on existing homes and commercial buildings in Gardner, Massachusetts (1 985), the many programs of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, and the projects of other utilities, including Delmarva Power and Light, the New York Power Authority, Southern California Edison, and the City of Austin (TX) municipal electric utility.

government and corporate support for this market waned with the loss of the tax credits. Interest has only recently reemerged in the United States, as designers and architects, often supported by forward-thinking utilities or philosophically inclined private clients, have begun to take advantage of technology advances. Recent examples of systems of this type include the PV Pioneer program, in Sacramento, California (see Fig. 3); and the Lord residence, on the coast of Maine (see Fig. I), respectively. The SMUD PV program has installed more than 4.3 MW of PV through early 1996, and its plan is to obtain at least half of its energy from energy efficiency and renewables by the end of the decade. SMUDs residential PV Pioneers receive SMUD-installed and owned PV roofs and pay a monthly premium for p

TlAL BlPV SYSTEMS

The first building-integrated market envisioned for PV was on residential roof tops. In the United States in the 197Os, there was a rush to install solar domestic hot water systems, encouraged by tax credits, and many assumed that the PV market would follow suit. So, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, much research and commercial development effort focused on this market The U S . Department of Energy (US-DOE) sponsored the development of three regional Residential Experimental Stations-in Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Florida-to test prototype systems in varied climates. Based on results from these research stations, the US-DOE and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) commissioned Solar Design Associates to design the first utilityinteractive, building-integrated, PV-powered residencethe Carlisle House. However, in the early 1980s,

Fig. 3. The Sacramento Municipal Utility Districts Solar Pioneers program installs PV systems on the homes of volunteer utility customers.

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program. There is a long wailing list of customers who wish to participate, even thought they receive no direct benefit from the electricity generated, because the connection is made on the utility side of the meter. In Europe and Japan, where interest in energy security and concerns about the environrnent have increased over the past decade, interest in renewable energy in general, and PV in particular, has also increased. Japan and most countries in Europe are land-limited, so distributed PV systems on buildings proved a very attractive path to pursue. In Japan, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) began a -/-year program in the fall of 1993 to subsidize the price (up to 2.7 million yen [approximately US$27,000] in the first 3 years, dropping to zero after the seventh year) of residential PV systems up to 3 kWp per home. The goal is 62,000 homes and 185 MWp of installed residential systems. Throughout Europe, governments are supporting the installation of residential PV systems. In Germany, the government has implemented its 1,000 Roofs program, subsidizing 70% of the cost of residential PV systems of between 1 and 5 kWp. The program, begun in 1990, soon expanded its goal to 2,500 roof-top installations. In Switzerland, even before the Germans instituted the 1,000 Roofs program, a privately funded program was developed that resulted in 333 3-kWp grid-connected PV systems, using private, long-term financing with low interest rates and volume purchases. The Dutch government plans to field 250 MWp of PV by tlhe year 2010, including an initial 1,000 homes by the year 2000. In Austria, the government modeled a plan after tlhe German 1,000 Roofs program, with the goal of subsidizing the installation of 200 kWp of PV. This program is nearly completed, and discussions are now under way to expand it by an additional 100 kWp. In Finland, more than 20,000 vacation homes are currently powered by PV, and estimates indicate that there are approximately 200,000 vacation homes that are ideal candidates for using PV. Nearby, Sweden has more than 20,000 vacation homes powered by PV, with more than 5,000 new installations each year, while Norway has more than 50,000 vacation homes powered by PV, with more than 8,000 new installations annually.

Fig. 4. The Bavarian Environmental Ministrys amorphous-silicon fagade and crystalline PV sun-controlling eyebrows provide a total output of 53.4 kWp.

basis, for the power produced versus the power consumed. Any power produced in excess of the amount consumed is typically repurchased by the utility at the lower avoided cost rate, while any power consumed beyond the level of the power produced is sold to the customer at the utilitys standard rate. This system is a win-win proposition, with the utilitys offsetting its peak loads with customer-supplied power, while the PV-system owner benefits by using the utility as a backup, avoiding the cost of a battery storage system. Currently, Japan, Switzerland and twelve states in the United States mandate Net Metering.
INTEGRATED COMMERCIAL BlPV SYSTEMS

As for residential PV technologies, companies in the United States, Japan, and Europe are actively pursuing module designs that lend tlhemselves to easy installation and provide an aesthetically pleasing substitute for traditional residential roofing materials. The Japanese company Sanyo and the Swiss company Alpha Real are working on roofing tiles, while Sanyo and the U S . company USSC are developing amorphous silicon thin-film roofing shingle modules.
Another area of importance to the commercializationof distributed PV systems is the work with utilities and federal authorities to establish uniform utility interconnection standards and Net Metering policies. Net Metering is a system where the utility credits a user, on a one-to-one cost

Architects and engineers in Europe and Japan have, with the convergence of strong public interest and significant government support, become very creative in the integration of PV elements into commercial building fagades. Other building applications include using PV as a sun screen, a light monitor, a semi-transparent window, and as sloped glazing or a roofing material. Each element can use either crystalline silicon or thin-film PV, depending on the needs of the architect and the client. More recently, architects in the United States have begun to field some exceptional examples of BlPV in commercial buildings. Examples of PV integrated into commercial structures include the Bavarian Environmental Ministry (see Fig. 4), in Germany, with both a fagade of amorphous silicon modules and sun-controlling eyebrows over the south-facing windows, using thick-crystal modules, with a total generating

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Fig. 5. The Aerni Fenster, AG, industrial plant and office building, in Arisdorf, Switzerland. The roof- and fa$adeintegrated systems total 62 kWp.

capacity of 53.4 kWp; the soon-to-be-constructed Science Park Gelsenkirchen, near Essen, Germany, which, at 300 kWp, will be the largest building-integrated PV system in Europe; the faqade and roof systems, totaling 62 kWp, o f the window manufacturer Aerni Fenster, AG, in Arisdorf, Switzerland (see Fig. 5); the APS factory, in Fairfield, California, with its entry cube, 3.2-kW amorphous silicon curtain wall (see Fig 6); the Olympic Natatorium, in Atlanta Georgia, with its 340-kWp roof-top crystalline array (see Fig. 7); the Mataro Library, in Mataro, Spain, with its 53kWp crystalline faGade (see Fig. 8); and, a Tsukasa Electric Industry Company building, in Japan, featuring a full south faGade of Sanyo amorphous silicon modules, with opaque modules used in non-view areas and semitransparent modules used as view glass (see Fig. 9).

Fig. 6. The APS factorys entry cube comprises a 3.2kWp amorphous silicon PV curtain wall, replacing conventional faGade materials.

In the United States, in 1992, the US DOE launched a 5year cost-shared program, called Building Opportunities in the U.S. for Photovoltaics (PV:BONUS), to encourage the development of building-integrated PV systems. Under this program, Solarex Corporation, of Frederick, Maryland, a division of Amoco/Enron Solar, has developed a line of building-integrated components for faSades and sloped glazing PowerWallm, in conjunction with architectural curtain wall giant Kawneer of Atlanta. There are several factors driving ation of PV with surface area of commercial buildings. One is the the buildings with the proper orientation, much of which could receive PV materials, either in new construction or in retrofit. Another factor is the coincidence of the building power loads with the peak production of PV-the buildings are occupied during the day, when the PV system produces power. Another is financial, in that part of the cost of the PV module components will be offset by the cost of the materials they replace, whether roofing materials, fagade materials, or shading elements. Commercial building developers and owners often consider the value of an architectural element as much as its cost-otherwise, why would a building be finished in granite or marble? And,

Fig. 7. The roof-top PV system at the 1996 Olympic Natatorium, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, employees 2,832 modules to produce 340 kWp. In addition, a custom arched glass PV canopy was designed for the entrance to the complex. At 3,043 m2, this is the largest system of its kind in the world.

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Fig. 8. The Mataro Library, in Mataro, -Spain, uses a facade- and roof-integrated crystalline PV system to produce 53 kWp of power

initial experience shows that BlPV provides an image that appeals to potential tenants, helping to lease the building space.
SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Fig. 10). The thinfilm modules, if opaque, can be used as faqade elements for non-view areas, or if semitransparent, can replace tinted glass in view areas. Because the modules are made semi-transparent by laser-cutting evenly spaced microscopic holes in the PV material to allow light to pass through, a process developed at Sanyo, their efficiency is less than the opaque modules.

Fig. 9. The Tsukasa Electric Industry Company building, in Japan, with a Sanyo amorphous silicon module facade.

The most obvious components in building-integrated PV systems are the modules. These can vary from thick-crystal modules, with opaque backings, to semi-transparent thin-film-on-glass modules, and include any combination in between, with sizes ranging up to 2 square meters. O r , they might be designed into shingle or tile elements. The most architecturally and aesthetically pleasing modules include, in addition to the shingle or tile modules, the crystalline glass-on-glass modules and the thin-film-on-glass modules. These crystalline modules can be integrated into structures in such a way that. the light entering the building will have the feel of that passing through the leaves of a tree-providing elegant patterns of light and shade (see

A critical balance-of-system component for BlPV systems is the power electronics used to transform the dc power generated by the modules into the ac power used in virtually all applications. These inverters also synchronize the power from the system with that of the utility grid and monitor the power flow for faults. They vary from individual large central inverters to the newly developed ModuleIntegrated Inverters, which convert the dc output of each individual module to ac (see Fig. 10). Additional components could include storage batteries, for stand-alone systems, and the required mounting and connecting hardware.

INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

In 1990, under the leadership of Prof. Jurgen Schmid, a working group was created within the International Energy

Fig. 10. A view from the interior of the Mataro Library, showing the diffuse lighting effects of using glass-on-glass PV modules used in building faqades.

Fig. 11. A module-integrated, 250-W inverter, measuring 21.6 cm x 18.4 cm x 3.2 cm (shown with a pencil for scale).

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Agency (IEA) to deal with PV. This Task 16: Photovoltaics in Buildings involved experts from some 15 nations. The group worked to assess techniques for maximizing the benefits of PV in buildings and optimizing the economics o f these systems. Task 16 work included information on both residential and commercial buildings, and grid-connected and stand-alone systems. The results of this work are evident in many of the examples discussed in this paper. Having completed its charter, the Task 16 efforts were documented in the book Photovoltaics in Buildings: A Design Handbook for Architects and Engineers, published by James & James, London, UK, for the IEA. However, the technology and its applications continue to evolve, and BlPV work will continue in the IEA under the newly created Task 7.

buildings send an important m their owners, which is becoming

the technology has taken a progr become part of the form and aesthetic of t well as part of a more sustainable future.

[l J Photovoltaics in Buildings, editors F. Sick and T .Erge. International Energy Agency, Paris, France. Solar Heating & Cooling Programme, Task 16. James & James (Science Publishers) Ltd, London, UK, 1996. 287 p.
[2] Solar Electric Buildings: An Overview of Todays Applications. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department o f Energy. DOE/GO-l0096-253, DE96000524, February 1996. 32 p.

The potential market for building-integrated PV systems is enormous, and many companies are now beginning to work on the development and commercialization of specialized BlPV components and systems. Residential and commercial BlPV will likely be the nearest-term large-scale markets for PV in the developed countries. Buildings provide substantial surface area, allowing systems designers and integrators to displace the cost of conventional materials with PV; building-integrated systems supply power at the point of use, avoiding the costs and losses inherent in power transmission and distribution; and, PV-powered

[3] S. Strong, The Solar Electric House, Chelsea Green, White River Junction, VT, 1991. 276 p.

[4] S. Strong, Market Advances and Future Prospects for Building-integrated Photovoltaics (A white paper for the American Solar Energy Society, 1994).

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