30 October 2008
NICE, France

The International Workshop on PV Building Integration (BIPV) was organized by EPIA in the framework of the EU IP Performance project in collaboration with EU Sunrise project.

The photovoltaic sector has increased drastically in recent years with a growth of about 40%. The deployment of this technology in building environments has been specially important in markets as Japan and Germany where especial programs has been developed in order to promote Photovoltaics in roofs. Residential PV roof-top systems represent around 90% of the total Japanese market and over the half of the German Market.

Other European countries as France, Italy and Switzerland have gone beyond these measures and currently provide significant additional bonus not only for installing the system on the roof but making it a part of the building shell (BIPV). These measures have mobilized the industry which is now focused on providing PV solutions as a new building/construction component (e g. PV Roof-tiles, semitransparent PV facades, PV shading systems, etc.). Synergies with other industries as glass industry and roof materials industry are becoming more and more important.

The final goal is to replace existing building material by PV products which will provide the same at least the functions in addition to electricity generation.
Buildings are responsible of 40% of the European energy consumption and therefore responsible of the 1/3 of the GHG emissions. The Integration of renewable energy sources as thermal collectors for sanitary water and PV modules for electricity generation are together with energy efficiency measures and better designs (e g passive houses) the way to reduce energy consumption and therefore contribute to tackle climate change.

The huge potential of Photovoltaics is due to the fact that it is a unique reliable, clean and silent electricity source, which can be easily integrated in a decentralized way into cities, towns and built-up areas, while shifting power generation away from being large-scale and regionally located. PV distributed systems make possible to generate electricity where and when is more needed while avoiding high costs of the extension of the electricity grid.

During the one-day workshop, Industry, architects, research and certification institutions, and other national and European organizations provided an excellent insight into the latest developments on the field of BIPV, including current policy and market situation in Europe, overview of the standardization process for BIPV products, barriers for the introduction of Photovoltaics in the building sector, latest technologies and applications among others.

All the presentations can be found below:

For any further information, please contact:
Mr. Daniel Fraile, EPIA: d.fraile@epia.org,
Mr. Berrie van Kampen, TNO: berrie.vankampen@tno.nl  or
Mr. Jan-Cees Jol, Ecofys: JC.Jol@ecofys.com

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