Façade Optimization of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) for Sustainable Energy in High Rise Residential Buildings

Abstract

Buildings are accountable for one -third of the world’s energy utilization and residential buildings account for 27% of this. One of the most significant inventions that is sustainable and reduces buildings energy consumption is Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). Among the major areas of BIPV application is building facades. This paper discusses the conflict between PV façade design and energy performance. The study conducted an experiment, testing the parameters affecting energy generation of PV façade identified from literature. The results show that cylindrical building form has the highest % of self -shading and did not perform best in terms of heat loss, but it generated more sustainable energy due to having the highest array yield and has the highest ratio of Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) which is of relevance to photovoltaics system performance, the higher the DNI the higher the energy output. Therefore, a curved PV façade is recommended to be used for high-rise residential buildings.