APPLICATION OF TRANSPARENT PHOTOVOLTAICS (TPVS) IN MODERN INSTITUTIONAL BUILDING IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

By 2025, Singapore aims to harness 1.5-gigawatt peak (GWp) of solar energy to meet 2% of its total electricity demand (Begum, 2020). At the end of Q1 2020, Singapore has installed a total of 4,067 solar photovoltaic, 2,759 of which are non-residential and 1,308 are from residential buildings (Energy Market Authority, n.a). Singapore has also one of the world’s largest floating solar farms that can produce an estimated 6 million kWh of energy per year (Chong, 2021), bringing Singapore a step closer to its 2025 goal. However, the traditional method of installing conventional photovoltaic solar panels across a horizontal plane of space has posed a great challenge to Singapore’s scarce land. With this knowledge, it is imperative to find alternative solar photovoltaics such as Transparent Photovoltaic (TPV) to maximize space utilization as well as total solar energy gain of the building. TPV technology allows solar-to-electricity energy conversion while maintaining visible transparency of the building, allowing building facades to function as more than just an architectural object but also a solar energy harnessing object that can provide a more sustainable energy source for the building. Therefore, in this dissertation, we will review the TPV technology used, and analyse the feasibility of implementing TPV on a modern institutional building in Singapore.