Semi-Transparent Building-Integrated Photovoltiac (BIPV) Windows for the Tropics

Abstract

In recent years, climate change mitigation has been one of the global agendas. Due to the significant contribution by the building energy use to this issue, there has not only been an increasing awareness in not only improving building energy efficiency but also promoting the use of clean or renewable technologies. This study investigated the performance of semi-transparent BIPV windows in Singapore?s tropical climate. First, commercially-available BIPV modules were laboratory tested for their electrical, thermal and optical properties. The measured data were utilised in building energy simulations to determine their impacts on building energy consumption in tropical conditions in Singapore. A new index was formulated to evaluate the overall annual performance of semi-transparent BIPV modules in terms of multifunctional effects on building energy. Subsequently, a life cycle assessment was conducted to determine their long term environmental and economic performances. The life cycle resource uses were first investigated using up-to-date databases before adopting the building energy simulation results to assess the life time performance. Lastly, the results were used to derive a framework aimed at providing a simplified approach to facilitate the implementation of solar building applications.