Performance Assessment of BIPV Systems: Research on BIPV Characterization Methods

The dynamic sector of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is progressively achieving a level of technical maturity and one of the major challenges to address in the coming years will be cost-effectiveness towards a mass-market implementation. Supported by the increasing technological development, by digitization and process innovation, such systems will have to be ready on the next frontier: to be integrated throughout the regular construction market in order to make cities healthier and powered by on-site solar renewables. BIPV products, evolving towards multifunctional products, will need more clear qualification and certification processes as construction products to promote commercialization throughout the EU, based on dedicated standards supporting higher market confidence. The H2020 project "BIPVBOOST" [1] is focused on obtaining a reduction in costs along the entire production chain by pursuing product and process innovation, thus supporting the BIPV implementation in the built environment. As introduced by the authors [2] [3], EN 50583: 2016 Parts 1 & 2 represent the main regulatory framework in Europe for BIPV whereas the IEC Project Team PT 63092 is currently preparing an international BIPV standard. Basically, the product qualification is currently based on standards created for standard PV or, on the other hand, for "non-active" traditional construction products. Starting from this framework, the analysis of the missing gaps and a roadmap to define new reference procedures for BIPV product qualification were set as a first step of the research. The next step of the project which is currently ongoing, is targeted to the development of some reference performance-based schemes, referred to a set of technical requirements and product families, which will aim at combining both PV and construction requirements in a harmonized assessment. The paper will present the basic aspects of the procedures under development: Energy economy; Electrical performance in non-conventional scenarios; Mechanical performance of BIPV elements; Fire reaction of BIPV components/systems.