Integration of innovative BIPV solutions on micro CHP plants

According to the International Energy Agency, buildings are responsible for 32% of the world’s energy consumption. Taking into account that almost 70% of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, the main challenge is to convert the building for “energy consumers” to become “energy producers”. To that end, the maximization of RES penetration into the building infrastructure is of high importance. Compared to other renewable and sustainable energy generation technologies, solar technology is rapidly-growing due to the fact that the solar energy is abundant and thus extended research has been carried out on this topic targeting mainly in the new BIPV technology for enhancing solar panels integration in the building opaque surfaces.
However, as also stated in the literature, one of the main parameters that affect the performance of a solar panel is the cell temperature, pointing out the need of cooling technics. In that direction and especially in building-integrated PV applications, the heat dissipating from the PV panels can be utilized to improve the overall energy conversion of such BIPV applications. It is stated that PV panels could benefit from cell temperature reduction and increase their electrical power by at least 3%, reaching an overall energy conversion efficiency of more than 40%.
This paper describes the operational performance results and the affected parameters of a 15 KWp grid-connected BIPV system applied on the roof of the building that hosts the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of NTUA at Zografou Campus in Athens, Greece after a complete year of monitoring and based on IEC 61724 Standard. The evaluation of the results showed up to 20% reduction on electrical performance ration due to temperature effect, which can be overcome by applying a hybrid photovoltaic-thermal (PV-T) solution, which can result on an overall efficiencies of 70% or higher, depending on the conditions.
On this direction the technological solutions of H2020 PVadapt research project are presented in which a novel a Heat Mat / PV module component will be developed, aiming to a PV output increase and longevity through maintaining operating temperature at 25°C. The Heat Mat will be a system with dual function: firstly, when attached to the back panel of a photovoltaic module it will harvest the thermal energy of the solar cells, leading to the reduction of PV temperature that will increase performance and length of life. This research will result in maximizing the penetration of new BIPV/T and micro-CHP technologies leading to more efficient and low-cost holistic systems with shorter payback periods.