PVPS Task 7, which for the last five years has drawn together PV industry, architects and other buildings specialists to focus on enhancing the architectural and technical quality and economic viability of PV systems in the built environment, is also coming to a close.
Architectural integration of PV into roofs and façades of buildings and other multifunction structures (e.g. canopies and sound barriers) is seen as one of the key routes by which PV will contribute to the future energy demand of industrialized countries. Indeed, one of the fundamental activities of Task 7 has been to analyze the potential contribution that PV applied to suitable building stock could make towards satisfying current electricity demands. This is an important first step for developing sound market introduction policies, and for establishing realistic targets for PV within national energy portfolios. Between 15% and 60% of the national electricity demands of the PVPS participating countries could be met from PV in the built environment, excluding building surfaces that either present installation problems, or that are technically inappropriate (e.g. that would yield less than 80% of the output of an optimal system due to poor orientation, inclination or shading).
Task 7 has made an important contribution towards raising awareness not only of the technical potential for urban PV applications through workshops and reports, but has also developed an excellent website (http://www.pvdatabase.com) to showcase interesting designs and hopefully stimulate new ideas among architects and other key implementation groups.
Another proactive measure to encourage innovative and aesthetically attractive but functional solutions for PV in the built environment was the Task 7 design competition. A compendium of the best ideas, published in the competition results book, is a useful reference tool for PV-novices. Task 7's work has also resulted in a number of products aimed at demistifying the technology and simplifying outline PV system design for non-specialists; PVSYST, a software package for architects, engineers, researchers and students, quickly enables relative novices to view and analyse data for a wide variety of system configurations, and also provides a system-sizing functionality. In the longer term, though, a stream of well-informed, appropriately skilled architects, urban planners and building engineers is vital for sustainable implementation of PV in the built environment. Task 7 has developed materials and a proposal for a training course structure as a first step towards satisfying this need.
Information about all of the Task 7 reports and tools mentioned, as well as many others is available on the PVPS website. A book and CD-ROM (see box) encapsulating all of the work undertaken within Task 7 over the past five years will be published later this year, to coincide with Task 7's final workshop which will take place in Rome in October 2002 alongside the Conference 'PV in Europe: from PV Technology to Energy Solutions'.
Information:
A source book for building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV)
This quality reference book encapsulates the five years of Task 7 work, involving over thirty international experts drawn from the fields of BIPV research, development and design. It is aimed at encouraging governments and agencies to support BIPV deployment and to raise confidence among architects, engineers, environmentalists, planners and their clients. The book addresses the following topics: |
| • | Building design & environmental concepts: Holistic design process, building aesthetics and urban aesthetics, functional and performance needs vs architectural appeal of BIPV and other technologies; |
| • | Technologies & integration concepts: Discussion of PV technologies in the marketplace and a summary of integration concepts in use for all building typologies; |
| • | Building integrated PV application: Case stories from over 20 international examples; |
| • | Non-building Structures: Examples of innovative PV-integrated non-building applications; |
| • | PV Potential & Design tools: International assessment of PV potential against country building stock typology and review of BIPV design plus analysis tools for architects, building practitioners and planners; |
| • | Electrical concepts, reliability & standards: Essential electrical configuration considerations for safely integrating PV technologies to the grid; |
| • | Non technical barriers & markets: A review of national government programmes, mechanisms and market issues to address non-technical barriers to PV deployment. |
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A CD-ROM containing images and training material addressing BIPV products, design options and practice and processes will accompany the book.
Cover price is USD 65.
To order, contact: Images Publishing, Fax: +61 (0)3 9561 4860
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