BIPV

Australian scientists have tested different reflective coatings in solar tiles and have found that they could improve the performance of building-integrated PV devices by up to 6.6%. They are currently working with building product manufacturers to bring their tech closer to commercial production.

Saint-Gobain has acquired a minority stake in Megasol, a Swiss manufacturer of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules.

Solvay has announced a partnership with China’s 3TREES to develop building-integrated photovoltaic thermoplastic polyolefin roofing membranes that comply with China’s new 25-year aging requirements for BIPV TPO roofing. The new BIPV product will be commercialized by the end of the year.

Envelon’s new manufacturing facility will be able to produce up to 300,000 square meters of facade solar modules.

The urgency of rooftop solar uptake has only been accelerated by the current energy crisis, but the spread of PV to historic and landmarked buildings remains limited. In Europe, historic buildings constructed before 1945 represent at least a quarter of total building stock. To boost uptake, some municipalities are considering a loosening of their protection policies, while researchers are finding interesting byways for installation. Furthermore, building integrated PV solutions are being touted as the ideal compromise between aesthetic continuity and new generation opportunities.

A new 120 MW solar installation spread across 11 rooftops in China’s Jiangxi province is now the world’s largest single-capacity, building-integrated PV project.

Researchers in China have reported a colorization strategy for solar based on photonic glass. They created solar panels that took on blue, green, and purple hues, while only dropping the efficiency of power generation from 22.6% to 21.5%.

Scientists in the Netherlands have developed a model to forecast the energy yield of a PV system. It is able to take into account factors such as partial shading and multiple module orientations. Tested against a reference cell and pyranometer, the model showed less than 5% error, and the scientists claim their approach is up to three orders of magnitude faster than more common approaches using complex ray tracing.

Estonian startup Solarstone has developed two solar tiles with an efficiency of up to 19.5% and an operating temperature coefficient of -0.41% per C. It recently secured €10 million in funds to expand sales across Europe.

Swansea University will collaborate with Indian multinational Tata Steel to investigate perovskite solar cell materials that could be applied directly onto coated steel to make building-integrated PV components. The partnership will add to an “active buildings” project that the Welsh university has been running for several years.