Publications

Building Integrated Photovoltaic systems (BIPV) may be part of facade or building roof, so, the accumulated heat at the back of the panels can be dissipated to the internal space of the zone. This heat exchange may contribute to the increase of temperature of interior rooms or, even more, to increase the operating temperature of the photovoltaic cell, which affects negatively the conversion/ power generation efficiency of the photovoltaic (PV) system itself. Then, this work aimed to investigate the BIPV systems’ influence integrated to facades in the energy performance of commercial buildings under Brazilian climates, by evaluating the influence of the heat generated by the PV material on the interior temperature of the simulated area and on the efficiency of the system PV itself. The applied method is based on computational simulations using the EnergyPlus software. However, as already pointed in other studies, PV panel models available in the software cannot accurately simulate the thermal interactions between the BIPV systems and the simulated environment. Thus, this work proposes a method for the simulation of BIPV systems through EnergyPlus according to PV materials thermal properties. Two simulation methods were developed for BIPV systems, one for opaque systems and other for Semi-Transparent Photovoltaic systems (STPV). After the simulations, it has been proven that BIPV systems influence the interior rooms thermal comfort conditions, through the mean air temperature or the surface temperature increase, which was up to 17.4°C higher than the Base Case. The system efficiency had losses up to 7% due to the PV cells temperature increase, however, it is believed that this reduction will only be effective in large-scale generation systems. When evaluating the differences between the consumption of an artificially conditioned building with and without photovoltaic material, there was a variation according to the bioclimatic zone (ZB) due to the other building materials adopted in STPV typology, especially because of double glazed windows. In ZB3, Florianópolis and Belo Horizonte, the use of STPV systems enhanced in 8% and 3%, respectively, the energy consumption with Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), while in ZB8, Vitória and Fortaleza, the STPV system reduced this consumption in about 1%. Nevertheless, the balance between increased air conditioning consumption and power generation was positive in all cities, representing 7% of the annual consumption of the offices tower in the worst case (Florianópolis) and 10% in the best (Belo Horizonte).