The results of IEA  PVPS Task 7's international design competition for PV products for the built environment were announced in May. Prizes totalling 7 000 Euros were awarded to five winners in four product categories.

Task 7's objectives are strongly oriented towards enhancing the architectural and technical quality of PV systems specifically for use in urban settings. The design competition aimed to encourage attractive, innovative and functional approaches for integrating PV into these environments with products for which there is a clearly identifiable market. The competition entries were assessed primarily on how well they addressed these key criteria, with additional marks being awarded for ease of installation, operation and maintenance, efficiency of performance, practicality and cost-effectiveness of manufacture, design flexibility and regard to environmental considerations.
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More than 60 architects, engineers, designers and students registered for the competition. These were narrowed down to 29 entries from 10 countries, with designs grouped into four categories: roofing products, facades, other building products (such as shading devices and building entrances), and PV products recently released into the market.
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The overall competition winner, together with the designs judged to be best in each category were announced during the 16th European PV Solar Energy Conference in Glasgow. Robert Webb of Robert Webb Associates, UK, won Euro 1500 as the overall competition winner for his design for PV panels as a ventilated rain-screen system over a light-weight stressed-skin timber construction. The judges admired the overall concept for the building and its consideration for environmental and passive solar issues in addition to electricity generation.
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Andrew Weight from Reading University, UK, was the winner of the roofing products category, as well as overall student winner. He was awarded Euro 1500 for his PhotoFIT design. This design for mounting PV modules to provide a roof or façade covering used an innovative profile system as the module frame. It aims to minimize costs by simplifying installation requirements in terms of components, complexity and time. The judges considered it to be well-presented and well thought through entry, giving good consideration to the integration of cabling and avoiding the problem of the frame shadowing the module.
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The façades category prize of Euro 1500 was shared between Marcel Ferrier, and architect from Switzerland, and a team of three students, S. Tomatsury, K. Kondo and T. Oshashi, from Hosei University, Japan. Marcel's design was for a PV façade on a circular building that addressed the issue of the sun's movement in an innovative manner. The Japanese design was for a building with a PV roof and façade with water flowing over the module surfaces. The combination of PV and water-cooling systems aims to keep the building and PV installation cool.
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A practical and sturdy design for a PV Sunshade system that both optimized solar gain and avoided self-shading won Euro 1500 for the other building products category. D. Hewitt and R. Braunstein of Kawneer Co. in the USA submitted the design.
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The recently released products short listed were all roofing products, and includes systems to fit onto sloped roofs, PV roof tile systems and systems for mounting PV modules on flat roofs. They were all well developed designs providing cost effective and practical methods of mounting PV on a wide range of roof types. A team from Econergy international in the Netherlands was the category winner with INTERSOLE design that allows a range of module types and sizes to be integrated into any type of tiled roof in a weatherproof manner. The judges commented that this was a practical system likely to be good value for money.
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In addition to the main category prizes, an award of Euro 1000 was presented to Halle 58 Architekten, in Switzerland for their Solarsail creation. This prize was awarded on the basis of the number of votes given to the entry by visitors to the exhibition of short listed designs held at the Glasgow conference. All the short listed entries were exhibited at the conference and visitors to the exhibition were invited to vote on their favourite design.
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Information
For further information see also the press release of the design competition. Alternatively contact Angela McKenna at Halcrow, Fax: +44 (0) 1793 815020.

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