Investigating the thermal behaviour and degradation rate of BIPV modules: Case study of a high-rise office building under different climatic conditions

The building sector is considered a promising niche for photovoltaic (PV) deployment in general and in particular for the concept of building integrated PV (BIPV). An interesting BIPV application is in high-rise office buildings as facade elements, enabling the exploitation of large surface areas for energy generation in the built environment. This paper investigates the behavior of BIPV modules when integrated in high-rise buildings. The focus is on thermal aspects, including the annual temperature distribution and the equivalent temperature, the latter representing the cumulative effects of thermal degradation. The openIDEAS environment and a validated BIPV model are used to simulate the building thermal conditions and to obtain the BIPV (cell) temperature and power output. Five different locations with diverse climatic conditions are considered: Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Seville (Spain), Naples (FL, USA), Cape Town (South Africa), and Munich (Germany). The results have shown that both temperature distribution and equivalent temperature vary significantly among the locations, with Riyadh and Seville having the highest temperature while Munich and Cape Town the lowest. Furthermore, little difference was observed between equator-oriented and west/east orientations of the BIPV modules for all locations. Finally, wind effects seem to have an important impact on both equivalent temperature as well as energy yield.

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