Sept. 18, 2017
Press release - Innovation in Solar Building Skins & Energy Efficiency towards Sustainable Cities, Brussels - 18 September 2017
Innovation in Solar Building Skins & Energy Efficiency towards
Sustainable Cities
• Building-Integrated Photovoltaics: Where Energy Efficiency meets
Building Aesthetics
• The first BIPV-workshop was organized in Brussels
The BIPV-workshop organized in Brussels on September 7, 2017 is the first of a series of
European workshops and conferences in the field of Energy Efficiency in buildings and
cities with a focus on Innovation in Solar Building Skins, also known as building-integrated
photovoltaics (BIPV). This European Technology & Innovation Platform (ETIP) BIPV
initiative is as wel related to areas such as smart grid, storage of renewable energies in
buildings/cities, e-mobility and Internet of Things (IoT).
The basic idea behind the national workshops is to gather the stakeholders in the value
chain in the respective countries to understand the needs and opportunities of BIPV and
to mobilize the actors to support the developments needed to grasp these
opportunities.
The key issue of the events is to encourage the collaboration among the various
stakeholders of the building sector, including architects, the building industry,
developers, engineers, etc., and the PV/BIPV sector, together with designers and
investors.
The numerous attendance of the BIPV event - based on the initial project by Silke
Krawietz (CEO, SETA Network, ETIP PV Executive Committee Member and BIPV Working
Group leader) - co-organized by EnergyVil e, Flux50, the Becquerel Institute, ETIP PV and
SETA Network confirmed the growing interest of the stakeholders to the opportunities of
BIPV.
During the institutional session, after the introduction and the detailed overview of the
event by Jef Poortmans, national organiser of the event (imec/EnergyVil e, ETIP PV
Executive Committee member and BIPV Working Group co-leader), followed the
presentation of the national SET Plan representative Lut Bollen (Department of Economy,
Science & Innovation, Flemish Government) to illustrate the importance of BIPV in the
SET-plan and the EU-directives. The representative of the European Commission Fabio
Belloni (Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Research & Innovation) lined out the
importance of the BIPV sector and the connection with the SET Plan Declaration of
Intent PV,
as well as the relation to the Implementation Plan of the SET Plan, which has been
carried out by the Temporary Working Group (TWG) PV.
Silke Krawietz underlined the importance of such initiatives based on the participation of
various leading European national research institutes, which are Steering Committee
members of the ETIP PV and supported by national industries and stakeholder
associations.
This was followed by a series of high-quality presentations by leading architects,
engineers and testimonials of companies of the BIPV value chain. The presentation of
the first outline of an BIPV roadmap by EnergyVille was one of the highlights of the
conference. The break-out sessions on the various aspects of BIPV (materials,
electronics, installation, value chain build-up and legal barriers), important for the
national industry and research institutes, allowed to more precisely define the
challenges and barriers and to fine-tune the interests of the stakeholders at the Belgian
level.
Gaëtan Masson, Vice-Chairman ETIP PV and Managing Director Becquerel Institute:
“Europe is well positioned to take advantage of the tremendous untapped potential of
the nascent BIPV sector. However, it requires a string of smart policies and incentives at
European, national and local level, an increased awareness of architects, builders and
policymakers to deploy al its possibilities. It has the potential to revamp the building
industry and grant to the European industry a strategic leadership that shouldn’t be
missed”.
Jef Poortmans commented at the end: ”The broad attendance, the lively discussions in
the break-out sessions and the explicit statement of several contributors that one can
now final y observe a growing sense-of-urgency in BIPV prove this was the right time to
start this series of events.”
Focus on the event
Central to these workshops is a market pul approach to answer the fol owing key
questions: What innovation, be it aesthetical, technological, legislative or otherwise, is
required by the building industry stakeholders to enable massive-scale deployment of
BIPV by what could be described as “scalable customization”? What is required to
stimulate innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration among the building and PV
sectors?
Within the context of energy efficiency in buildings and cities for new and existing
building stock, the development of innovative design concepts, flexible manufacturing
essential for the future development of the BIPV market and the development of related
national value chains. The various national workshops aim at identifying the specific
needs and opportunities of the respective national market structures in connection with
the requirements for NZEBs and Positive Energy Buildings.