Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Building-integrated Photovoltaics: Where Sustainability meets Aesthetics

As the costs of photovoltaics decrease, it makes more and more sense to focus on solutions to better integrate them into our buildings and infrastructure" - commented Marko Topic, Chair of the PV Platform. "Some building-integrated photovoltaic technologies are still more expensive than simple PV; however, taking into account their multiple functionality, already today BIPV applications can be more interesting than conventional building elements that do not produce electricity" - he continued

The idea sounds simple: buildings may be made of structural components exposed to the sun, so why not build a PV-generating capability into them? If a PV-enabled building element looks better than a non-PV-enabled one, architects will adopt it and it will fetch a premium. Equally, the electricity it produces has a value that should also be taken into account in the price of the component.

Laurent Deleersnyder, Energy Efficiency & Intelligent Energy Unit, Directorate General for Energy, European Commission

Gabriela Salejova, Solar Energy Systems SIG, KTN, Innovate UK

Paul Cartuyvels, Bouygues SA, ECTP Presidium

Laure-Emmanuelle Perret-Aebi, CSEM

Jef Poortmans, IMEC, Vice-Leader of the BIPV working group of the EU PV Technology Platform

Luc Bourdeau, Secretary General of the European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP)

Peter Graham, Executive Director, Global Buildings Performance Network

Dieter Moor, CEO Marketing and Sales, ertex solar

Frederic Bonnefoy, Product Manager Active Glass, AGC

Venizelos Efthymiou, EU Smart Grid Tech

David Muller, Global Head of Strategic Marketing PV, Merck