Solergy Inc., the developer of a cogeneration concentrated PV (CPV) solar energy system, has introduced a building-integrated CPV (BICPV) product for building rooftops, greenhouses and agriculture applications.
The Solergy BICPV solution transforms a passive structural element into an integrated energy appliance that generates electricity and heat, the company explains. The product is compatible with greenhouses and skylights and features a rapid, non-destructive installation and integration.
The technology announcement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Solergy and Azienda Agricola Ciccolella, a producer of olive oil and cut roses in the Puglia region of Italy.
Solergy will integrate a 105 kW Cogen BICPV system in Ciccolella's greenhouses used to cultivate roses. In addition, the two companies will collaborate to develop the Cogen solar market for greenhouses and orchards throughout the Puglia region, representing hundreds of megawatts, according to Solergy.
To learn more: click here.
Source: Solergy
Showing posts with label BIPV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BIPV. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Dye-Sensitized Cell Panel & Materials Revenues Projected to Reach $1.9 B by 2016
Revenues generated by solar panels using dye-sensitized cell (DSC) technology will reach $1.9 billion by 2016, according to a new report from NanoMarkets. The report identifies the new business opportunities that are emerging from the DSC sector and covers both on-grid and off-grid uses.
The report, "Dye Sensitized Cells: Materials, Applications and Opportunities," finds that projects with DSC-based building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) involving Pilkington and Tata Steel appear to have progressed well in the past year, suggesting a healthy market in the future. NanoMarkets projects that revenues from DSC-based BIPV will account for over 80% of the DSC market by 2016.
In addition, new and more cost-effective DSC materials are being developed. For example, costly ruthenium dye may eventually be replaced by chlorophyll derivatives, copper-based dyes and mixed "cocktails" of various dyes. Solid-state, printable and transparent electrolytes are also on their way to the marketplace. By 2016, the DSC panel industry is expected to consume more than $780 million in materials.
DSC represents a substantial opportunity for the building-materials industry to add PV capabilities to their premium tiles, siding and architectural glass, the report states. By 2016, building substrates of this kind are likely to represent a market worth around $500 million.
SOURCE: NanoMarkets
The report, "Dye Sensitized Cells: Materials, Applications and Opportunities," finds that projects with DSC-based building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) involving Pilkington and Tata Steel appear to have progressed well in the past year, suggesting a healthy market in the future. NanoMarkets projects that revenues from DSC-based BIPV will account for over 80% of the DSC market by 2016.
In addition, new and more cost-effective DSC materials are being developed. For example, costly ruthenium dye may eventually be replaced by chlorophyll derivatives, copper-based dyes and mixed "cocktails" of various dyes. Solid-state, printable and transparent electrolytes are also on their way to the marketplace. By 2016, the DSC panel industry is expected to consume more than $780 million in materials.
DSC represents a substantial opportunity for the building-materials industry to add PV capabilities to their premium tiles, siding and architectural glass, the report states. By 2016, building substrates of this kind are likely to represent a market worth around $500 million.
SOURCE: NanoMarkets
Friday, April 1, 2011
First There Was Solar Roofing Shingles - Now There Are Solar Walls
Odersun AG, a Germany-based manufacturer of customized solar modules, and Lithodecor, a producer of ventilated curtain wall systems, have signed a collaborative agreement to provide solar facade products.
Odersun will supply Lithodecor with custom-made copper indium disulfide solar modules for the company's Airtec system. In addition to classic materials - such as glass and natural stone - Airtec facades are now available with multifunctional facade components integrating photovoltaics.
Solutions already provided by Lithodecor can be individually combined with the new solar components, the companies note. Supplier Odersun manufactures system-compatible as well as project-specific solar modules for building integration.
SOURCE: Odersun
Odersun will supply Lithodecor with custom-made copper indium disulfide solar modules for the company's Airtec system. In addition to classic materials - such as glass and natural stone - Airtec facades are now available with multifunctional facade components integrating photovoltaics.
Solutions already provided by Lithodecor can be individually combined with the new solar components, the companies note. Supplier Odersun manufactures system-compatible as well as project-specific solar modules for building integration.
SOURCE: Odersun
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Solar Shingles Replace Regular Shingles
When scientists at Dow Chemical looked at the possibility of manufacturing solar panels a few years ago, the company rejected it out of hand, says Chief Executive Andrew Liveris. Dow had no experience building solar panels. Yet their concept was alluring: integrate thin-film solar cells into roofing shingles. In place of traditional asphalt shingles, several hundred of these nailed onto the roof could generate enough electricity to power a home. Liveris sent them back to the lab, then decided to take the plunge.
Today those scientists are testing prototypes of the product, which Dow calls Powerhouse. Dow's aim is to start selling Powerhouse next year. Because they look like traditional roofing material, the solar shingles are more likely to get the nod from uptight homeowners' associations. Now, says Liveris, "I believe this will be solar for the masses."
That change of heart reflects the sunny outlook of Dow's solar champion, William Banholzer, whose title is chief technology officer. "I don't see any reason why people wouldn't want to generate clean electricity from their roof," he says. He adds that the market for this product could be $5 billion by 2015 and envisions that "someday Dow would be a solar company that happens to make chemicals."
Dow didn't invent the idea of a solar roof shingle. Uni-Solar, a division of Energy Conversion Devices, has been selling a version for a decade. But the difference is the technology behind the solar cell. United Solar uses something called amorphous silicon technology, while Dow has set its sights on a newer technology known as Cigs--photovoltaic cells made of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, which, when they work, are more efficient--able to turn 13% of the sun's energy into electricity. Cigs' big drawbacks are that it's tricky to manufacture, and if any water gets inside a cell it will oxidize the metals, rendering it kaput. That's why most Cigs installed today (only 1% of all solar panels out there) are covered with a layer of glass. But glass is too stiff and unwieldy for residential roofs.
So Dow, exploiting its 70 years of plastics research, has devised a transparent and flexible coating that encapsulates the cell to protect it from the elements. At least that's the plan. Dow still has a year of testing its top-secret formula before Banholzer will be ready to put Dow on the hook for an industry-standard 25-year warranty.
Dow's solar efforts benefited from a $10 million handout from the Department of Energy in 2007. The company has invested $100 million of its own in research and in the construction of a small manufacturing plant near its Midland, Mich. headquarters that can annually make 4 megawatts (peak power) of Cigs, enough for 2,000 homes. Banholzer says Dow will need to sell 50 megawatts a year to turn a profit, so he'll be buying cells from the likes of Global Solar and has invested in upstart Cigsmaker NuvoSun. Even so, Paula Mints atNavigant Consulting ( NCI - news - people ) says manufacturing snafus make it unlikely that Dow will be able to procure anywhere near 50 megawatts of Cigs for years. Banholzer says if that's the case Dow will use something else. Dow has funded Caltech researchers looking for an all-new solar technique.
Source: Forbes
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Pike Research Sees Big Growth for BIPV
Building-integrated photovoltaics installed capacity to grow more than tenfold to 2.4 GW by 2016, says Pike Research.
According to a new report from Pike Research, BIPV and building-applied photovoltaics (BAPV) market dynamics will change beginning in 2010, transforming from a market that was too expensive to really take off to a viable PV market force, mostly due to the extreme drop in PV costs. The firm forecasts that installed capacity will grow more than tenfold by 2016, approaching 2.4 gigawatts (GW) worldwide in that year compared to just 215 megawatts (MW) in 2009.
Pike Research forecasts that this growth will generate annual wholesale market revenues of $4 billion by 2016, under a base case scenario.
“Rapidly falling cost per watt will be a major driver of BIPV and BAPV installations in the coming years,” says senior analyst Dave Cavanaugh. “In addition, rooftop installations are becoming much easier with the market entry of new, high-efficiency CIGS-technology panels and shingles. At the same time, the aesthetic appeal of BIPV and BAPV is improving with the introduction of solar crystalline-silicon modules and thin-film tiles and shingles that blend into building facades, atria and rooftops.”
Cavanaugh adds that other key growth drivers include newly-instituted generous BIPV/BAPV feed-in tariffs in countries such as Italy, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Ontario, and he believes it is likely that the United States will institute BIPV/BAPV incentives beginning in 2011
Other drivers will likely include efficiency improvements in c-Si and thin-film modules, better aesthetics for BIPV applications and the increase in the popularity of green building among consumers.
Additional factors that are likely to fuel adoption of BIPV/BAPV are efficiency improvements in both c-Si modules and flexible thin film panels and shingles, an enhanced supply chain for BIPV/BAPV solar products, much easier rooftop installation, and an increasing desire to “go green” by owners of residences and commercial buildings.
Pike Research’s report, “Building-Integrated Photovoltaics,” reviews the global markets for BIPV and BAPV including a comprehensive analysis of demand drivers and economics, technology issues, and key industry players, according to the company. The company also says that the report includes base case and upside scenario forecasts for BIPV/BAPV installed capacity by world region and technology, along with forecasts of wholesale market revenues through 2016.
According to a new report from Pike Research, BIPV and building-applied photovoltaics (BAPV) market dynamics will change beginning in 2010, transforming from a market that was too expensive to really take off to a viable PV market force, mostly due to the extreme drop in PV costs. The firm forecasts that installed capacity will grow more than tenfold by 2016, approaching 2.4 gigawatts (GW) worldwide in that year compared to just 215 megawatts (MW) in 2009.
Pike Research forecasts that this growth will generate annual wholesale market revenues of $4 billion by 2016, under a base case scenario.
“Rapidly falling cost per watt will be a major driver of BIPV and BAPV installations in the coming years,” says senior analyst Dave Cavanaugh. “In addition, rooftop installations are becoming much easier with the market entry of new, high-efficiency CIGS-technology panels and shingles. At the same time, the aesthetic appeal of BIPV and BAPV is improving with the introduction of solar crystalline-silicon modules and thin-film tiles and shingles that blend into building facades, atria and rooftops.”
Cavanaugh adds that other key growth drivers include newly-instituted generous BIPV/BAPV feed-in tariffs in countries such as Italy, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Ontario, and he believes it is likely that the United States will institute BIPV/BAPV incentives beginning in 2011
Other drivers will likely include efficiency improvements in c-Si and thin-film modules, better aesthetics for BIPV applications and the increase in the popularity of green building among consumers.
Additional factors that are likely to fuel adoption of BIPV/BAPV are efficiency improvements in both c-Si modules and flexible thin film panels and shingles, an enhanced supply chain for BIPV/BAPV solar products, much easier rooftop installation, and an increasing desire to “go green” by owners of residences and commercial buildings.
Pike Research’s report, “Building-Integrated Photovoltaics,” reviews the global markets for BIPV and BAPV including a comprehensive analysis of demand drivers and economics, technology issues, and key industry players, according to the company. The company also says that the report includes base case and upside scenario forecasts for BIPV/BAPV installed capacity by world region and technology, along with forecasts of wholesale market revenues through 2016.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Global Solar Introduces Flexible BIPV based on CIGS
Company officials told PV-Tech that the new thin-film PV product has been submitted for UL, IEC, and JEC certification, which they expect to be completed by the end of the year, with the commercial launch set for the first quarter of 2010.
Jean-Noel Poirier, Global Solar’s VP of marketing and business development, said that “the core channel partners are the roofing companies, the roofing membrane manufacturing companies.” Global Solar has been sending samples to these customers in anticipation of the market rollout.
“They want a piece of the PV action…they want a PV product specially designed for roofs,” he added.
CFO/COO Steve Alexander credits “the nine or ten key early adopters” that helped “ensure that we’re making a product that is exponentially better than anything else out there today, and they’ve been really key in the final development of this product. They’re perfectly happy to do their objective qualification alongside our certification, so we come together at the same time, and we’re ready to sell to them and they’re ready to [buy], for the 2011 purchase cycle.”
The Tucson, AZ-based company cites several advantages of its flexible modules over traditional roof-mounted rigid glass module-based systems, including the light weight, nonpenetrating and nonperforating installation, minimal wind load, conformal integration, and aesthetic appeal.
It also sees 30-40% savings in balance of systems (BOS) and installation costs, since the modules lie flat on the roof with no mounting structure and can occupy more rooftop real estate, thus increasing the watts per project.
Global Solar’s PowerFLEX BIPV will have a 25-year power output warranty (with the standard 90% performance guarantee at 10 years and 80% at 25 years) and a five-year product and workmanship warranty, according to Poirier.
He said that the company has run the modules through 3000 hours of damp heat testing on its own test equipment—three times the amount of time required for IEC certification.
The new product will go head to head with ECD Unisolar’s flexible amorphous-silicon thin-film PV module laminate line, as well as with emerging solar roofing solutions from fellow CIGS manufacturers, Ascent Solar and SoloPower. Citing a 12.6% aperture conversion efficiency, Global Solar claims the highest efficiency and power density per rooftop on the market.
“The value proposition is very much driven by the combination of efficiency and form factor,” Poirier told PV-Tech. “We can put a lot of watts in a large format and can generate economies of scale at BOS and installation.”
Alexander explained that the company “didn’t have to retool the factory to do this product. We took the existing string-module line and added a lamination/finishing operation.” He expects that once sales ramp up next year, about two-thirds of production will be dedicated to the BIPV line.
Because of the extreme moisture sensivity of the quartenary PV material, the barrier encapsulation layer has been identified as the key challenge for flexible CIGS modules to overcome in order for them to be market ready. Alexander believes Global Solar has an advantage over the other polycrystalline thin-film companies in that regard.
“Because we got into production before everyone else, we had the benefit of working with every one of the materials suppliers, and we continue to work with almost all of them, even the ones that our competitors are working with. We don’t know what, for example, SoloPower is doing exactly, but we know what their vapor-barrier [materials] suppliers are offering.”
“There are a lot of technically viable solutions out there, but the challenge is having a commercially viable solution. Because we’re ready and we’re fortunate enough to have tested the whole market for those films, we’ve been able to settle on some good solutions that have been very effective for us and that we can actually buy,” he added.
Although the new module has BIPV—building integrated photovoltaics—in its name, Poirier emphasized that the real addressable market is “rooftops with weight-bearing limits… commercial roofs with weight limitations where you can’t put glass PV modules on them without reinforcing the building.”
With that in mind, he believes that about 30-40% of commercial and industrial rooftops worldwide fall into that category and that the PV market for the subsector that Global Solar is targeting will reach somewhere between 1GW and 3GW by 2015.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Making Smart Windows that Are Also Cheap
"Tunable" windows would let people adjust light and heat levels, but so far it's been hard to make them affordable.
Windows that absorb or reflect light and heat at the flick of a switch could help cut heating and cooling bills. A company called Soladigm has developed methods for making these "electrochromic" windows cheaply, making them more viable for homes and office buildings.
Existing electrochromic window designs cost around $100 per square foot. Soladigm has not disclosed how much its windows will cost, but some experts say the method could reduce the cost to around $20 per square foot.
The Milpitas, CA-based company uses a thin-film deposition process that creates conducting layers between two panes of glass for controlling the amount of sunlight and heat that can pass through. A homeowner or office dweller could control how much light or heat a window lets in or absorbs and reflects.
The company's windows contain two transparent conducting oxide films sandwiching an ion storage layer, an electrolyte, and an electrochromic layer--all between two layers of glass. Applying a low voltage to the conductive oxide kicks the ions out of the storage layer and across the electrolyte to meet with the electrochromic layer. The collision prompts the electrochromic material to absorb or reflect light. It also causes the material to darken, giving the window a tinted look. Reversing the voltage sends the ions back to its storage layer, causing the window to lighten in color and let more light in.
"We did a case study in five cities, and the average savings in commercial buildings are about 25 percent of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning energy use annually," says Rao Mulpuri, CEO of Soladigm.
The trick to making electrochromic windows cheaply is the right materials and latest manufacturing method, says Mulpuri. Today's thin-film deposition equipment--the same used to make flat panel display and thin-film solar panels--is much better than that used a few decades ago, when the electrochromic window concept emerged.
Soladigm will use a tungsten oxide-based electrochromic layer for its first windows. Tungsten oxide can endure repeated cycling between ion-rich and ion-free stages-which makes it durable, says Delia Milliron, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) researcher in electrochromic materials. However, using tungsten oxide can heat up a window until it's too hot to touch; it also doesn't block infrared light very well, meaning it lets plenty of heat through.
Source: Technology Review
Windows that absorb or reflect light and heat at the flick of a switch could help cut heating and cooling bills. A company called Soladigm has developed methods for making these "electrochromic" windows cheaply, making them more viable for homes and office buildings.
Existing electrochromic window designs cost around $100 per square foot. Soladigm has not disclosed how much its windows will cost, but some experts say the method could reduce the cost to around $20 per square foot.
The Milpitas, CA-based company uses a thin-film deposition process that creates conducting layers between two panes of glass for controlling the amount of sunlight and heat that can pass through. A homeowner or office dweller could control how much light or heat a window lets in or absorbs and reflects.
The company's windows contain two transparent conducting oxide films sandwiching an ion storage layer, an electrolyte, and an electrochromic layer--all between two layers of glass. Applying a low voltage to the conductive oxide kicks the ions out of the storage layer and across the electrolyte to meet with the electrochromic layer. The collision prompts the electrochromic material to absorb or reflect light. It also causes the material to darken, giving the window a tinted look. Reversing the voltage sends the ions back to its storage layer, causing the window to lighten in color and let more light in.
"We did a case study in five cities, and the average savings in commercial buildings are about 25 percent of the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning energy use annually," says Rao Mulpuri, CEO of Soladigm.
The trick to making electrochromic windows cheaply is the right materials and latest manufacturing method, says Mulpuri. Today's thin-film deposition equipment--the same used to make flat panel display and thin-film solar panels--is much better than that used a few decades ago, when the electrochromic window concept emerged.
Soladigm will use a tungsten oxide-based electrochromic layer for its first windows. Tungsten oxide can endure repeated cycling between ion-rich and ion-free stages-which makes it durable, says Delia Milliron, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) researcher in electrochromic materials. However, using tungsten oxide can heat up a window until it's too hot to touch; it also doesn't block infrared light very well, meaning it lets plenty of heat through.
Source: Technology Review
BIPV Market Gaining Traction
Similar to the way that the smart grid reflects the combination of energy management and information technology, building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is the marriage of 3 industries that so far have only worked together in marginal ways: architectural design, renewable energy, and building products.
Whenever you approach an industry from a different perspective, that’s when you produce very interesting products, said JD Albert of SRS Energy. SRS produces curved roofing tiles made of PV that are designed to fit into the mission-style architecture of the southwestern region of the U.S. Curved red clay roof tiles there are modeled after the Mediterranean roof styles found in Spain and elsewhere.
SRS Energy has roots in the roofing industry and saw the need for PV that would fully integrate – easily – into the roofs of these types of houses. Since the region where houses with these types of roofs proliferate happens to be in areas of the world with the greatest amount of solar insolation, the combination of curved roofing tiles and PV should go far. Albert said that SRS really views itself as a building product provider as opposed to a PV provider.
Solving two problems with one solution is a concept that is echoed by Pythagoras Solar, a company that makes double pane glass windows that incorporate PV and can generate renewable energy while also letting light through. The product is generally used as a building façade in large office buildings. BIPV has a real opportunity to add more value to solar, said Brendan Dillon, product manager for Pythagoras Solar. And providing more value, in an integrated roof tile or a glass window that also increases building efficiency is what will eventually lead to cost reductions in the BIPV market.
Roland Schindler of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems based in Cambridge, MA thinks that the number one issue the BIPV industry should be concerned with right now is cost. “Aesthetics and cost,” he said. We have to look at the entire energy consumption of the house or building, he explained, and then see where the BIPV product fits in.
till Far From Adoption
In Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, BIPV still only makes up about 2% of installed product so the industry still has a ways to go in order to increase uptake. (Left, a 1662 German farmhouse that was renovated in the 80's is the earliest example of BIPV in the country. Credit: Fraunhofer)
SRS Energy’s Albert views certification and standardization as a big factor in helping the industry gain market share. While in the U.S., there is a BIPV standard, albeit still young, in Europe there isn’t one, he said. Add to that the fact that each European country may have its own set of certification standards and tests for a BIPV product. “This is a big problem. You can go to Europe and, for one product, end up doing 4 different fire tests to go into 12 different countries,” he explained. “And also how much can you change a product and not have to re-certify?”
Not having one standard that is uniformly accepted costs the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. And there are long lead times to get a product certified. “For us, certifying is a multi-hundred-thousand dollar activity,” Albert said.
It also makes sense to certify installers of BIPV systems, Albert said. Whereas SRS roof tiles are designed to be easily installed by roofers, in many parts of the country, roofers wouldn’t be allowed to perform installations unless they are also licensed electricians.
Since BIPV is more of a product for the construction industry, which is experiencing a slump right now, Pythagoras Solar’s Dillon said that construction companies could differentiate themselves in the industry by incorporating more BIPV or at least learning how to use it. Green building and BIPV are segments of the market that are growing right now, even though construction as a whole is declining, he said.
And while new construction that incorporates BIPV certainly offers that “wow factor,” (see the lead image to this story) the BIPV industry would be remiss if it didn’t focus on retrofits. “I think here in the U.S. the retrofit market is really dominating,” Fraunhofer’s Schindler said.
“Just focusing on new construction is a challenge,” said Albert, “because clearly there are millions and millions of existing buildings and construction is very slow right now.”
Future Growth is Expected
Roland Schindler pointed out in a presentation that in some regions of the world, more emphasis is being placed on energy net-zero or net-positive construction. For example in France by 2020, all new buildings must be energy positive, meaning that they will generate more energy than they use. Energy net-zero or net-positive construction will by definition incorporate more BIPV as developers will be forced to incorporate as much energy generation into the building façade as possible. France also has a very high BIPV-specific feed-in tariff.
France of course is not alone. Most of the EU is requiring that new construction be at least energy neutral by 2020 and countries such as Germany, the UK and Ireland, like France, are requiring new buildings to be energy positive by 2020.
Overall, Schindler believes that there is unlimited potential for BIPV both in space and demand. They just need to get the costs down or figure out how to add value to an existing product, something SRS Energy and Pythagoras Solar have taken to heart.
Dillon of Pythagoras explained it this way: “It’s taken companies like SRS and Pythagoras and others to really design, from the beginning, a building material that also has PV so that roofers, glaziers, other construction trades can seamless integrate this into their current processes.”
Source: Renewable Energy World
To hear the video and see some interesting comments click here.
Whenever you approach an industry from a different perspective, that’s when you produce very interesting products, said JD Albert of SRS Energy. SRS produces curved roofing tiles made of PV that are designed to fit into the mission-style architecture of the southwestern region of the U.S. Curved red clay roof tiles there are modeled after the Mediterranean roof styles found in Spain and elsewhere.
SRS Energy has roots in the roofing industry and saw the need for PV that would fully integrate – easily – into the roofs of these types of houses. Since the region where houses with these types of roofs proliferate happens to be in areas of the world with the greatest amount of solar insolation, the combination of curved roofing tiles and PV should go far. Albert said that SRS really views itself as a building product provider as opposed to a PV provider.
Solving two problems with one solution is a concept that is echoed by Pythagoras Solar, a company that makes double pane glass windows that incorporate PV and can generate renewable energy while also letting light through. The product is generally used as a building façade in large office buildings. BIPV has a real opportunity to add more value to solar, said Brendan Dillon, product manager for Pythagoras Solar. And providing more value, in an integrated roof tile or a glass window that also increases building efficiency is what will eventually lead to cost reductions in the BIPV market.
Roland Schindler of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems based in Cambridge, MA thinks that the number one issue the BIPV industry should be concerned with right now is cost. “Aesthetics and cost,” he said. We have to look at the entire energy consumption of the house or building, he explained, and then see where the BIPV product fits in.
till Far From Adoption
In Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, BIPV still only makes up about 2% of installed product so the industry still has a ways to go in order to increase uptake. (Left, a 1662 German farmhouse that was renovated in the 80's is the earliest example of BIPV in the country. Credit: Fraunhofer)
SRS Energy’s Albert views certification and standardization as a big factor in helping the industry gain market share. While in the U.S., there is a BIPV standard, albeit still young, in Europe there isn’t one, he said. Add to that the fact that each European country may have its own set of certification standards and tests for a BIPV product. “This is a big problem. You can go to Europe and, for one product, end up doing 4 different fire tests to go into 12 different countries,” he explained. “And also how much can you change a product and not have to re-certify?”
Not having one standard that is uniformly accepted costs the industry hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. And there are long lead times to get a product certified. “For us, certifying is a multi-hundred-thousand dollar activity,” Albert said.
It also makes sense to certify installers of BIPV systems, Albert said. Whereas SRS roof tiles are designed to be easily installed by roofers, in many parts of the country, roofers wouldn’t be allowed to perform installations unless they are also licensed electricians.
Since BIPV is more of a product for the construction industry, which is experiencing a slump right now, Pythagoras Solar’s Dillon said that construction companies could differentiate themselves in the industry by incorporating more BIPV or at least learning how to use it. Green building and BIPV are segments of the market that are growing right now, even though construction as a whole is declining, he said.
And while new construction that incorporates BIPV certainly offers that “wow factor,” (see the lead image to this story) the BIPV industry would be remiss if it didn’t focus on retrofits. “I think here in the U.S. the retrofit market is really dominating,” Fraunhofer’s Schindler said.
“Just focusing on new construction is a challenge,” said Albert, “because clearly there are millions and millions of existing buildings and construction is very slow right now.”
Future Growth is Expected
Roland Schindler pointed out in a presentation that in some regions of the world, more emphasis is being placed on energy net-zero or net-positive construction. For example in France by 2020, all new buildings must be energy positive, meaning that they will generate more energy than they use. Energy net-zero or net-positive construction will by definition incorporate more BIPV as developers will be forced to incorporate as much energy generation into the building façade as possible. France also has a very high BIPV-specific feed-in tariff.
France of course is not alone. Most of the EU is requiring that new construction be at least energy neutral by 2020 and countries such as Germany, the UK and Ireland, like France, are requiring new buildings to be energy positive by 2020.
Overall, Schindler believes that there is unlimited potential for BIPV both in space and demand. They just need to get the costs down or figure out how to add value to an existing product, something SRS Energy and Pythagoras Solar have taken to heart.
Dillon of Pythagoras explained it this way: “It’s taken companies like SRS and Pythagoras and others to really design, from the beginning, a building material that also has PV so that roofers, glaziers, other construction trades can seamless integrate this into their current processes.”
Source: Renewable Energy World
To hear the video and see some interesting comments click here.
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