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37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1761-1766, This paper presents a novel 3D agrovoltaic modelling tool developed in python which enables technical and economical evaluation of potential agrovoltaic designs. It has been designed and applied for fruit crops which typically have a crucial flowering period. To illustrate the potential of this tool, a case study for pear trees in Bierbeek, Belgium is shown. While many geometrical parameters of agrovoltaic systems are fixed in practice, however, there is also the need to model the impact of PV modules on the tree light interception. The results of the modelling show that the amount of solar radiation depends on the modules used, with semi-transparent modules offering better light distribution and reduced crop loss. Based on the modelling, a prototype agrovoltaic set-up with pear trees and semitransparent modules has been built in Bierbeek, Belgium.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1787-1790, In response to the marked increase in research activity and publications about Vehicle Integrated PhotoVoltaics (VIPV), this article is an attempt to identify the main constraints relative to the manufacturing of curved PV modules for automotive application and the interests of composite modules in this context. Two processes have been selected as better adapted to the automotive industrialization and in-mold integration of PV cells: Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and thermocompression. A finite element analysis (FEA) to evaluate the mechanical strength of the resulting module is proposed. The aim of this numerical approach is to optimize the mechanical performance of the structure. First results were validated by a comparison of simulation outputs with 3-point bending test measurements.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1726-1733, The dynamic sector of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is progressively achieving a level of technical maturity and one of the major challenges to address in the coming years will be cost-effectiveness towards a mass-market implementation. Supported by the increasing technological development, by digitization and process innovation, such systems will have to be ready on the next frontier: to be integrated throughout the regular construction market in order to make cities healthier and powered by on-site solar renewables. BIPV products, evolving towards multifunctional products, will need more clear qualification and certification processes as construction products to promote commercialization throughout the EU, based on dedicated standards supporting higher market confidence. The H2020 project "BIPVBOOST" [1] is focused on obtaining a reduction in costs along the entire production chain by pursuing product and process innovation, thus supporting the BIPV implementation in the built environment. As introduced by the authors [2] [3], EN 50583: 2016 Parts 1 & 2 represent the main regulatory framework in Europe for BIPV whereas the IEC Project Team PT 63092 is currently preparing an international BIPV standard. Basically, the product qualification is currently based on standards created for standard PV or, on the other hand, for "non-active" traditional construction products. Starting from this framework, the analysis of the missing gaps and a roadmap to define new reference procedures for BIPV product qualification were set as a first step of the research. The next step of the project which is currently ongoing, is targeted to the development of some reference performance-based schemes, referred to a set of technical requirements and product families, which will aim at combining both PV and construction requirements in a harmonized assessment. The paper will present the basic aspects of the procedures under development: Energy economy; Electrical performance in non-conventional scenarios; Mechanical performance of BIPV elements; Fire reaction of BIPV components/systems.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1796-1801, Weather data are evaluated in view of their influence on high-quality PV energy yield predictions based on machine learning algorithms (MLAs). Optimisation experiments evidence that the prediction quality can be increased to over 30% by incorporating specific weather parameters in the ML-training. The results will feed into a planning tool for optimising the own consumption (including in wintertime) of PV plant owners. The outcome of this study also illustrates evolving best practice in using meteorological data to produce PV energy yield predictions with specific MLAs.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1972-1974, This paper introduces a recently initiated Italian national project on high innovative PV greenhouses considering different scales of experimentation as well as an interdisciplinary approach involving experts in different areas. At small scale, the light transmittance of spectrally selective solar cells devices, which focus different wavelengths on PV modules and plants, will be analyzed in order to obtain the best compromise between electricity production and photosynthesis. At medium and large scale, two greenhouses will be tested: (i) An experimental greenhouse (about 15 m2) equipped with different IoT sensors and innovative PV glasses technologies will monitor the growing environment together the energy production. (ii) Based on the results obtained in the medium scale greenhouse, some PV glasses will be used as envelope material for the renovation of a commercial-size greenhouse (about 100 m2). Both PV greenhouses will be located in a historic environment dating back to the XVIII century, the Botanical garden of Portici, which requires a careful approach to a correct integration with the landscape. Along the two years of the duration of the project is foreseen to finding the best compromise between functional characteristics (energy and food) and aesthetic ones, thus optimizing the integrated system showing the potential of innovative glasses for greenhouses.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1695-1700, We provide a general overview on vehicle integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) for passenger cars. Historic examples are reviewed to demonstrate that VIPV can provide an economic benefit due to the current and unique setting of very low solar cell costs and ambitious goals for electric vehicles. Subsequently, four guiding questions are addressed: 1. Which benefits are offered by VIPV, 2. Which potential costs are related to VIPV, 3. What are the challenges of VIPV and 4. What is the future potential of VIPV? It is shown that with a typical roof (1.7 – 2 m²) of a car equipped with solar cells, a solar driving distance of up to 1900-3400 km/year can be achieved and the cost for manufacturing such a solar module is estimated to be below 120 €/piece. Furthermore, using the full potential of solar integration in cars, a solar driving distance in the range of the yearly average driving distance of passenger cars in Germany (15,000 km/a) could be theoretically covered by VIPV.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1865-1868, The purpose of this work is to evaluate the real impact of a solar PV installation in self-consumption scheme on the household economics of a Spanish home located in the South Western region with over 1,600 average equivalent sun-hours per year. To that purpose, a 1.5 kWp PV system has been monitored from its installation date in June, 2018. The impact of PV production on consumption, compared to the time before PV, has been assessed, both in terms of energy (kWh) and savings in the monthly electricity bill (€). The work has also taken into account the kWh retail price variations. Year-on-year energy (kWh) savings have reached an average of 45%. Economic (€) savings are in the range of 28%, despite two limiting facts: a.) retail prices increased an average of 6% in the period of study and b.) the Spanish electricity bill includes items unrelated to consumption, which can add up to 50% of the bill. Another aspect of the work has been the simulation of the savings along the life of the PV system. It establishes that the simple payback time (STP) ranges from 14 years in net-metering scheme and upfront payment of the system, to 24 years in self-consumption scheme and 10-year financing.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1869-1873, This article presents an experimental work focused on evaluating the possibilities of using a heat pump powered by PV panels to produce domestic hot water in a dwelling of 3 members family. The analyzed heat pump is a compact equipment with a nominal thermal capacity of 625 W and a tank volume of 110 litres. This equipment is powered by both a PV panel of 255 W and the grid, although the system has been designed to prioritize the PV supply. During the designing procedure of the system, conclusions from previous similar works have been taken into consideration to optimize the performance of it, mainly: the power compressor, the power of the PV panel, the tank volume and the DHW demand. As a result, the average efficiency of the heat pump has been 3.5, although, if the PV energy contribution is considered, the system efficiency reaches the value of 11.9. Finally, the Solar Contribution of the system has been higher than 70%.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1900-1905, A task of the future, with regard to the social challenges of the transformation of the energy system and the adaption to the climate change, is to upgrade the energy efficiency of old buildings. The EU has set itself the goal of making the building stock almost climate-neutral by 2050. A forward-looking approach is to combine building greening techniques and photovoltaics (PV), as a number of synergy effects can be expected here. A seminar in the master‘s programme at the Faculty of Architecture of Nuremburg Tech in summer semester 2019 examined how buildings can be upgraded between the conflicting priorities of building culture, renovation, solar technology and building greening. Using the example of the “Nordring“ quarter (12 multi-storey residential buildings built in 1959) in Nuremburg, renovation concepts with building greenery and especially photovoltaics were proposed, which, in addition to a design upgrade, demonstrate that both strategies complement each other effectively. In 20 projects, different approaches, from cautious intervention to strong transformation, were developed and constructively deepened. The results show an enormous potential for upgrading of the building environment and housing stock.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1956-1963, The Bolivian highlands have a high global horizontal solar irradiance that results in a daily irradiation of 7.4 kWh/m2 which makes it an attractive location for the implementation of solar energy-based systems, considering that 57.6 % of the electrical energy is generated in gas-fired power plants and that within the index of consumption of basic services is natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas to satisfy the need for thermal energy consumption, the implementation of photovoltaic-thermal systems (PV-T) could come to minimize the consumption of these fossil fuels, For this reason, in the present work, a bidimensional thermal analysis is carried out in order to estimate the energy conversion of a PV-T system during June 21 (winter) and December 30 (summer), obtaining the temperatures of the components of the PV-T system to quantify the energy and exergy performance during the mentioned dates. Later on, the variation of the energy and exergy performance is also analyzed, considering different fluid input temperatures.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1964-1967, The new European directives focused to achieve public Net-Zero Energy Buildings require for their application the knowledge of the potential of photovoltaics (PV) generation of these buildings. The available building surfaces (façades and roofs) for PV integration depend on the building’s location and orientation, and relative position of the nearby buildings and elements. This work developed a technical procedure to determine the available surface for PV integration, the economic and energetic viability of the PV facilities, and their contribution of the energy consumption of the buildings through a case study. The current design has a potential benefit of 0,17 million of euros. Its greenhouse gas emissions are 0.27–0.92 Ton, ten times smaller than a production obtained through the traditional fuels (6–8.47 Ton), which are commonly used in Spain.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1680-1683, In this research, monitored data of residential PV – heat pump systems have been analyzed and modelled to assess their energy performance, CO2 emission reduction potential, the level of thermal comfort and their selfsufficiency. On the basis of a 5-minutes data set of a Dutch smart grid pilot named PowerMatching City which is based in Groningen, 11 households equipped with these systems have been evaluated. On the basis of five scenarios modelled it was found that systems with hybrid heat pumps with large PV systems (15 kWp) and mid-sized PV systems (4,25 kWp) would result in nearly zero-energy buildings. However, the self-sufficiency of electrical heating results were 10% to 110% less compared to hybrid heating. The major moderating factor is that the entire electrification of heating scale electricity demand 400% up. Entirely electrical heating will reduce the amount of CO2 emissions only if the seasonal coefficient of performance of the heat pumps would exceed 3.35, for our Dutch case study, mainly due to high emissions of the grid and low share of renewable.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1734-1737, We present a customizable technique of coloring photovoltaic modules by laminating colored textiles onto photovoltaic cover glass (CoTex). A white nonwoven fabric is imprinted with any color, design or graphic and is then laminated onto an arbitrary, frameless photovoltaic module. The short-circuit current losses of these modules range from 12% to 32% and depends on the color and its coverage, i.e. how much of the solar cell structure remains visible. We fabricate CoTex test modules in cyan, magenta and yellow with different print coverages to experimentally analyze their external quantum efficiency, reflection spectrum, energy yield, and appearance. These experiments on the three basic colors forms the basis for using digital prototypes that predict the energy yield and the printing parameters for arbitrary colors.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1850-1854, To reduce greenhouse gas emissions for rural regions in Germany, the share of renewable energy must increase within the next years. For this purpose, we developed the energy model simulation software UCB SEnMod (UCB Sector Coupling Energy Model), which simulates an energy system with 100 % renewable energy. Hourly values represent the demand for heat, electricity, and the traffic sector, as well as the production applications, wind energy, photovoltaics, hydropower, bioenergy, and solar thermal energy. Because of the fluctuations in the generation of electric power, a storage system is included. The simulation software SEnMod links the energy generation, energy consumption, and energy storage devices to cover the energy demand by energy production. Surplus or shortfall of the demand is compensated by trading between the regions.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1684-1687, Following the successful deployment of 33 PV systems with a total power of 2.2 MWp in the Confluence area in Lyon, France, SPL Lyon-Confluence, the city-owned company in charge of this urban development, decided to increase the involvement of stakeholders and to set up a collective self-consumption project within the construction of a new building block in the area. The aim was to give the building block inhabitants a direct benefit from the electricity produced by this PV system according to the French Energy Code. The French Energy Code permits the split of PV production data between several electricity consumers. Each consumer receives a part of the local energy produced during the day (directly from PV system or from a battery) resulting in a reduction of the electricity purchased from a “conventional” supplier.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1874-1879, This study analyses the efficacy of an off-grid solar array at charging a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) at a long stay parking lot in Lelystad Airport, the Netherlands. Initially, flight data is used to build up a charging demand profile for vehicles at the parking lot. The energy production and distribution among the plugged-in vehicles are modelled. The off-grid charging of vehicles over a year is simulated and the states of charge of these vehicles at exit are analysed. The results show that most EVs (85%) depart with an SOC higher than 75% while only a small fraction (0.37%) leave with critically low SOCs less than 25%. Winter months show decreased charging efficacy; just over half of the vehicles left with SOCs higher than 75% and the fraction leaving with SOCs lower than 25% rises to 2%. The charging efficacy at the given location is found to be most sensitive to the SOCs of vehicles on arrival, the duration spent by the vehicles in the parking lot and the occupancy levels in the parking lot. Charging efficacy is found to be less sensitive to variations in module tilt and module efficiency. Recommendations are made for design choices on implementation of the proposed system.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1757-1760, In building-integrated photovoltaics or BIPV, the solar cell module not only functions as energy source, but also acts as a structural element of the building. Curtain wall elements are abundantly applied in the construction sector and are particularly suitable for BIPV applications. Unfortunately, electrical cables must connect the outside solar module to the inside inverter, breaking the thermal envelope of the building. This creates a number of problems such as the creation of thermal bridges, condensation and water ingress. By means of inductive wireless power transfer, the energy from the solar module can be transferred over the insulation to the inverter, without breaking the thermal envelope. In this work, we present a wireless prototype BIPV system, designed for curtain wall elements, that applies inductive wireless power transfer. Measurements show that the system performs adequate for variable input power conditions, a prerequisite considering irregular solar radiation. Among others, we demonstrate experimentally that having a higher load resistance increases the voltage gain, while not significantly decreasing efficiency when operating at the optimal frequency. This can reduce stress on the voltage converters.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1859-1864, Solar photovoltaics installed capacity is expected to grow in the next years as a result of decreasing costs and new regulation being approved at the European level. This pushes for more robust approaches in order to analyze the effects of photovoltaics on local distribution and optimal system designs to which energy modelling is a valuable computational research tool. In this work two datasets on Portuguese case studies (urban and rural) are explored using Calliope, an open-source multi-energy system modelling framework with the objective of designing high-photovoltaic penetration in self-consumption schemes. Results show similar self-consumption ratios in both locations but a tendency for increased are a use in urban case, although available area and grid capacity constraints are not limiting factors for the integration of photovoltaic systems. Calliope framework, when applied to these datasets, reveals a power and valuable tool for future assessments.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1880-1883, In the field of building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), thin-film PV modules or films with organic solar cells (OPV) in particular also represent new solutions, especially when it comes to requirements for flexible module sizes and geometries. These potentials have not yet been exploited enough for further developments. In the context of a course with master students of the Faculty of Architecture of the Nuremburg Tech in the summer semester 2018, a solar façade was planned for this innovative technology at the former ZAE office and research building in Erlangen as a beacon project and research object, which provides sun and glare protection for the interior and functions as a visible sign of advanced energy research. This eye-catcher is intended to demonstrate how a fully functional yet aesthetically pleasing construction can be realised. The projects show interesting solutions from the viewpoint of architects and give an indication of the technical requirements for pv modules as construction material. They demonstrate the realization of consistently functional and aesthetically appealing constructions for a striking sign of advanced energy research.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1743-1747, Building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology has the potential to significantly contribute to the achievement of the demanding energy efficiency targets set by the EU. However, its market uptake has been hindered in the past years by the difficulties of the industry in providing holistic solutions complying with key demands from decision makers and end-users. This market deployment depends critically on the achievement of ambitious targets in terms of significant cost reduction, flexibility of design, high performance, reliability in the long-term, aesthetics, standardization, and compliance with legal regulations. Within this context, BIPV stakeholders currently dealing with design, manufacturing and installation, invest significant amount of resources and time (with an impact on the final cost) to translate potential clients’ requests and wishes into a BIPV project proposal with a technical layout, economic offer and feasibility analysis for energy production and installation (efficiencyperformance, cost, building skin integration, compliance with regulations, etc.). An integrated and collaborative digital process where information is defined, stored and shared between stakeholders through a digital model and an integrated platform, would reduce efforts, time, repetitive work, risk of mistakes, information losses, etc., transforming an almost “manual” and fragmented work into an interoperable workflow along the value chain. Overcoming these challenges to support cost reduction of BIPV can be achieved by the implementation of BIM (Building information modelling/management) from the construction sector into the BIPV value-chain, in order to introduce a digital and integrated process, supported by methodologies and platforms, ensuring clear structures, efficient processes, less time, lower costs and higher quality across the entire lifecycle. In this purpose, the European H2020 project BIPVBOOST (www.bipvboost.eu), identified the need for a transfer of a BIMbased digital approach from the construction sector to the whole BIPV process, thus achieving a substantial reduction of the cost along the value chain (from design to installation). The overall ambition of this study is to highlight BIM activities developed within BIPVBOOST, providing clear definition of the reference BIPV process, including its information categories and KPIs for cost-reduction and developing, from the early design phase, the use of BIM-based software tools for the simulation of PV together with the building energy performance.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1937-1940, Building integration has a huge impact on photovoltaic modules operating conditions and, then, on their performance compared to rack-mounted systems, according to their locations on roof or façade. Thus, existing detailed and simplified prediction models are suitable for some kind of solar installations but are less accurate for other configurations. In this study, based on an experimental database obtained with the various test benches mounted during the last ten years at CEA INES site, a detailed analysis of performance indicators was realized in order to define simplified equations to predict BIPV modules thermal behaviour and electrical performance according to their integration configuration and technology. Relative errors of up to 0.07 % for the performance ratio equations and 0.30 % for the electrical energy production equations were obtained. Finally, a comparison of each BIPV system according to their locations on building envelope was performed in order to highlight their advantages and limitations. Thus, annual performance ratio values varied between 81 % and 89 % for inclined roof installations and 41% to 66% for façades systems. As further study, more equations would be selected in order to optimize the accuracy of the systems prediction at the thermal and electrical levels.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1931-1936, The debate on climate change is mobilizing research and innovation across all policy areas in EU. The European Green Deal is the roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable. This will happen by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities for a EU Green Deal, accomplishing the growing interest of public opinion in a tangible diffusion of sustainable policies and renewable energies. Solar Photovoltaics (PV) has evolved dramatically to become the most affordable clean energy technology with impressive potentials. The built environment remains a strategic domain in view of the goal of full decarbonisation by 2050, so that Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is emerging more and more as the opportunity to exploit the surface area available on buildings for power generation and also with strong market prospects. New multifunctional products that can be perfectly integrated into the skin of the buildings (i.e. façades, roofs) are emerging as extremely versatile materials, with multifunctional properties and benefits for solar constructions to realize nearly-zero or plus-energy buildings. However, in addition to the aforementioned advantages, the aspects related to safety are relevant since integrating PV in buildings requires an accurate performance assessment in accordance with construction norms and PV standards. This became evident when, as a result of PV market spread, also an increase of cases of fire was registered, highlighting the need of implementing a proper fire prevention policy including protection systems, especially in cases of PV interaction with the building skin. Fire safety is a topic of primary interest for BIPV systems, in order to guarantee a proper level of safety and reliability during the building life cycle which, in turn, calls into question the need to investigate innovative technologies and approaches to protect the buildings such as rapid shutdown systems. This paper resumes the first part of a research carried out by the authors aimed at developing and set up first test protocols focused on the fire behaviour assessment for electrically active BIPV façade system. Object of investigation are facades equipped with systems capable of a fast electrical potential minimization mainly oriented to ensure the safety of maintenance and, in case of fire, safety of rescue personnel as well as the reduction of fire spread.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1711-1718, We propose a new integrated photovoltaic module technology and manufacturing process for the seamless integration into box body roofs of commercial trucks to unlock a 90.2 GW potential in the EU. Our approach is to laminate c-Si photovoltaic cells with an ETFE-top cover onto conventional GFRP-hard-foam sandwich elements, which can be directly installed with conventional box body profiles. We find that VIPV modules must be lead-free and report results of Hot-Spot, Wet-leakage test and insulation tests to prove the electrical safety of the new concept. We perform UV, DH and accelerated TC testing on minimodules and find a mean PMPP drop of 3.6% for PERC, ribbon soldered half-cell modules after accelerated TC200 due to finger failure and partial ribbon disconnections. We conclude that conventional soldered ribbon based interconnection in combination with polymer based cover materials lead to unfavorable thermomechanical stresses in TC. We propose the usage of interconnection technologies that are less sensitive to thermomechanical stresses like Multiwire or shingling as we find that the mean drop in PMPP of shingle modules to be 1%. PERC Solar cells encapsulated using the proposed module design remain stable after DH1000 and UV 60 kWh/m². We equipped a Mega electronics e-Worker with a photovoltaic active box body featuring the first generation of proposed module technology and reported initial monitoring results after 10 months of outdoor operation.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1811-1814, More than five million under-five children lose their lives each year, globally. The loss remains concentrated in settlements of the global south. Lack of access to safe drinking water and enduring polluted indoor environment are the primary causes of the colossal loss. Providing clean water to these deprived communities necessitates suitable water treatment. But, treating water is energy-intensive, and inadequate access to water is often found in areas with poor energy access. Likewise, adopting electric cooking to reduce indoor air pollution requires a stable supply. Nevertheless, energy access has advanced in the recent past. Off-grid utilities are increasingly centering on solar photovoltaic generation to extend access to consumption-limited access-tiers. These utilities may not be able to power a reverse osmosis based water treatment facility or an induction cookstove. However, leveraging evolving technology, efficient use of solar PV could power water treatment and clean cooking. Recent advances in demand-side management extend necessary capacity for cooperative consumption. Prosumer collaboration may lead to declining levelised cost of energy, expanding energy access, and reduced child mortality. The results highlight the importance of prosumer collaboration for efficient resource utilization and favorable cost of energy access.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1738-1742, The increasing development of photovoltaic (PV) technologies allows for more feasible PV products, that can split the fixed big electrical infrastructure into smaller mobile systems, suitable for future smart buildings. This research, investigates opportunities for interior PV (IPV) products, that harvest indoor ambient light. The outcome is a working prototype of a standalone indoor solar lamp. An indoor light simulation model is presented and validated for two rooms in Delft with absolute error of 10% compared to measurements over five days per room. The prototype consists of a tailor-made, foil-to-foil laminated PV module, consisting of 36 pieces of laser cut SunPower interdigitated back contact (IBC) cells. At standard test conditions, a maximum DC output of 35.9 Wp was measured, corresponding to a module efficiency of 20.3%. Furthermore, a charge controller with maximum power point tracking algorithm was used to charge a 12 V polymer lithium-ion battery pack. The combination of pyroelectric infrared (PIR) motion sensor detector and a light sensor module assures a conservative use of a 2.4 W strip of light emitting diodes (LED).

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1927-1930, Currently, we are faced with a great global challenge whose solution, yet to be found, will allow to achieve a sustainable energy future. This challenge is none other than minimizing the impact that climate change will have on us and on our future generations. Renewable Energy and Electric Vehicle are considered to lead this transition towards a climate-sustainable future, and the combination of both can play a fundamental role in reducing CO2 emissions in one of the most polluting sectors, transportation. Vehicle Integrated PhotoVoltaics seeks, through photovoltaic solar energy, to increase the autonomy of Electric Vehicle from a renewable and clean source. To know the viability of this technology, it is necessary to develop new studies and tools. This paper details the development of a new tool that allows to know the solar resource on the curved car-roof surface of the vehicle along its trajectory and the generation of electrical energy through photovoltaic cells.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1891-1895, With the development of photovoltaic power generation, the reasonable and high effect utilization of solar rational are faced with some problems. Building integration photovoltaic (BIPV) requires not only the function of external enclosure, but also independent power for construction purposes. BIPV using renewable solar energy is a green building technology; it is a new concept of producing energy. How to scientifically configure the installation capacity of BIPV system is an urgent problem to be solved. Based on the PVsyst software, this paper makes a preliminary design for the BIPV system.In the preliminary design stage, according to the geographical locationavailable area of the building and the characteristics of load operation, the optimal matching of photovoltaic modules of the integrated photovoltaic building was analyzed to determine the configuration and installation scheme of photovoltaic modules. Thenbased on PVsyst software's photovoltaic module configuration data, using HOMER software, based on the total installation and operating costs of each component's life cycle, simulate the size and configuration of different renewable energy systems, and optimize the economics of the BIPV system. Configure the design and verify the PVsyst software design.Finally, refer to the PVsyst and HOMER software design schemes, determine the system construction scheme, and verify based on actual measurements.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1809-1810, In times of accelerating climate change, increasing electrification of heating and mobility and rapidly sinking PV costs, it becomes more and more critical for utility companies to provide an electricity grid that can cope with the future challenges. As a research project the future electricity load of a small swiss town was analyzed in detail for every single building for different scenarios and the impact on the grid was calculated. It was shown that the additional costs for the grid for going net-zero with the entire city is surprisingly small, if a good combination of curtailment, decentralized storage and detailed advanced planning is used. On the other hand, trying to brute-force a net-zero city right now without these components would require upgrading more than 25% of all cables and nearly all substations.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1701-1705, Electric vehicles are destined to become the main form of people transport in the near future. They are noise and emission free with the potential to offer completely zero-emission use when the energy used to charge their batteries is generated from renewable resources. On-board PV, PV that is integrated into the body of the car is a novel solution to provide this clean energy at the point of the consumption. In this study the case of vehicle integrated photovoltaics or VIPV is examined to quantify what PV could produce to meet the energy requirements of electric vehicles. The potential is interpreted in terms of a reduced need for charging and increased independence from the grid, reduction in CO2 emissions and financial benefits. With the use of an Energy Flow Model to simulate the charge and discharge of the electric vehicle battery, we consider the impact of location, car specifications and charging strategy on the total contribution made by PV. In one case study 41% of the required energy is provided by PV, and in another 5617km/year are provided by the PV suggesting that, with the technology available today, PV can have a significant impact on electric transport.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1855-1858, The Selection of optimal power converter topology considering all the situations and criteria lead students to confusion. Due to the lack of familiarity on the power electronic modules, the students experience the complexity in choosing appropriate power electronic modules for PV/battery energy sources. The improper selection of power modules leads to deteriorating the efficiency of the system and detriment of the equipment’s too. This paper will explain the different kinds of converter topologies suitable for PV/battery sources; it will help the student in characterizing the converter easily and using a specified framework and integrated recommender process with the definition of decision model that is based on the available knowledge and the capitalized experiences resulting from experience feedback on previous projects.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1826-1830, In the future, with costs for PV modules rapidly declining and an expected increase of PV penetration in energy production, the cost for PV installations may be impacted more and more by balancing costs of storage, load management, and curtailment, rather than the currently dominating hardware components (PV modules and BOS components) and their installation. While the impact of the temperature coefficient has been investigated and published, in this paper we want to also include the impact of tilt. With our physics-based bottom-up modeling approach, taking into account coupled optical, thermal and electrical effects we quantify with high accuracy PV production throughout the year. The modeling allows a very fine time granularity, but here in particular, we want to look at daily and seasonal energy yield (rather than intra-day generation). Additionally, we want to focus more on the locations with a high potential mismatch between PV generation (with a traditional system optimized for yearly energy yield) and electricity/energy consumption throughout the year. As such, Ottawa is chosen for its high potential with high relative irradiance and very low temperatures in winter. With its climate data, energy yield then simulated as a function of the tilt of the module, as well as its technology, in the form of its temperature coefficient. The parameters of the modules are extracted from commercial datasheets in order to be as relevant as possible. For a tilt optimized towards yearly energy yield, a module with a high temperature coefficient can result already in an improved energy yield over the winter season of 1% compared to a module with a low temperature coefficient, and an additional 1% in winter and in fall if also the low-light behaviour is increased for the high temperature coefficient module. If the tilt is also considered for optimization, we indicate how further improvements may be possible, though simulations towards this end are still being streamlined and results taking into account both effects of temperature coefficient and tilt will be produced in the coming months.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1968-1971, This work aims to assess the energy performance of future urban buildings in Algeria considering a significant integration of photovoltaics (PV). This is particularly relevant due to their considerable energy demand, as well as the expected growth of PV deployment in urban areas. The assessment of the PV energy potential of several simplified neighborhood configurations was carried out, considering two building shapes and two levels of proximity between buildings. For all studied configurations, the solar potential largely exceeds the electrical energy demand. Additionally, the density of buildings has a great impact on electricity demand and PV production, especially in façades. Each building shape has its benefits, either high PV production or low electricity consumption. The neighborhood configurations with circular buildings show optimal energy behavior in all the case studies with high PV production in façades ranging between 193 MWh/year to 209 MWh/year, and low electricity consumption, about 2790 kWh/ building.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1896-1899, SMARTER TOGETHER is an EU-funded Smart City project that aims to improve quality of life for citizens in large European cities. The project focuses on finding the right balance between ICT technologies, citizen engagement and institutional governance to deliver smart and inclusive solutions in three urban districts: Confluence in Lyon, Neuaubing-Westkreuz/Freiham in Munich and Simmering in Vienna. Within SMARTER TOGETHER, Lyon, Munich and Vienna implemented many large-scale smart city solutions together with the involvement of local stakeholders such as the comprehensive refurbishment of existing buildings, the development of e-mobility solutions and the development of renewable energy production systems. This includes the implementation of 16 PV systems in three cities for a total power of 2.3 MW. Although each PV system is quite different from each other, they all share the same implementation policy based upon co-creation processes involving all local stakeholders thanks to strong collaboration with the local city administrations.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1767-1771, Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs) have the potential for use in greenhouse roof panels to produce electricity while increasing agricultural productivity. Given that LSCs do not exhibit a perfect light trapping, part of the fluorescence light exits through the escape cone enriching the transmitted spectrum in the fluorescence band. This work concerns the evaluation of LSCs as modular devices for greenhouse building hence both the performances of LSC modules as well as the influence of this devices on basil seedlings growth was assessed. The LSC prototypes evaluated showed efficiencies ranging from 1.23 to 0.85% which, given the large surfaces involved by greenhouses, are sufficient to provide ventilation or provide water pumping. Basil seedlings were grown for three weeks under different LSC covers which in the case of red dyed LSC resulted in improved growth and health comparing to the seedlings grown under transparent PMMA.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1815-1817, To provide a simple instrument to operate residential Load-Shifting or Demand-Side-Management systems, the measurement of the actual grid frequency seems to be an appropriate method. Due to the present inflexibility and the lack of sufficient throttling capabilities of lignite and nuclear power plants, a surplus of electricity generation occurs during periods of high wind and solar power generation. While the specific CO2- emission is decreasing then due to the increased share of Renewables, the grid frequency is increasing (to a certain limit). Using the grid frequency as an indicator to switch-on and off certain loads (loads that do not require power permanently (e.g. dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, fridges and freezers, heaters) could provide a simple, inexpensive demand-side management indicator to lower specific CO2emssions and costs (if a dynamic consumption tariff is available). To check the truthfulness of that hypothesis, the grid and frequency data of the German grid of the year 2018 have been collected and a the correlation between grid frequency, power surplus, share of renewables vs. CO2-contents and price at the European energy exchange (EEX) have been calculated. The results show: Correlation between frequency and share of renewables is quite low (r = 0.155) due to the fact that primary grid control quickly compensates deviations from the 50 Hz nominal frequency. There is a good anti-correlation (r = - 0.687) between the EEXprices and the share of renewables in the grid. Over the years, correlation between electricity trading prices (EEX) and CO2 emissions is quite good (r =0.665), within the one year (2018) that correlation almost doesn’t exist, possibly due to the inflexibility of the bulky lignite power plants that even operate at negative prices.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1995-1998, The rapid decrease of photovoltaic system costs enables the potential of agrivoltaic systems. These dual-land use systems mitigate land-use conflicts for places with limited open space and show the potential for added value in crop and livestock cultivation. However, many different names and interacting possibilities between agriculture and PV can be found. This makes it difficult and confusing for stakeholders to compare and benchmark existing installations as well as propose and set new (EU) legislation schemes. This work proposes a standardized classification of agrivoltaic systems, which is usable worldwide. The classification is based on the application, system, farming type, PV structure and flexibility and is able to categorize each existing agrivoltaic installation properly. Seven key performance indicators for agrivoltaic systems are suggested and discussed.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1748-1751, Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems aim not only to generate part of the electricity consumed by the edifice, but also to reduce the environmental impact, such as the Green House Gases emissions produced by the generation of electricity by fossil fuels and the land area that would be required when installed the PV devices in floor. Nevertheless, the thermal behaviour of the PV modules has an impact into the indoor temperature of the building. To study the thermal effect produced by the environmental factors into the module temperature, Artificial intelligence, i.e. Genetic Programming (GP), is applied to one year of data of crystalline silicone PV modules mounted as building elements at outdoor operating conditions to get the model which best describes the thermal behaviour. Two well-known models guided the algorithm, the ones proposed by Ross and by Sandia Laboratories. From the application of Genetic Programming, a model was obtained which calculates the module temperature with less than 1% error. Six constants parameters are obtained for the thermal behaviour of crystalline silicon PV technology, fitting an equation whose structure reflects the two well-known models of Ross and Sandia.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1911-1914, How can we integrate photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems in the built environment and rural landscapes while increasing societal support and making effective use of space? This important research question is inspired by several grand societal challenges, namely humankind’s response to anthropogenic causes of climate change, the required sustainable energy transition and innovations in the design of systems, products, buildings and local infrastructures which enable an optimal use of solar energy. Consequently, new sustainable energy environments must be created which will meet the needs of users, will fit in a societal context, will have an excellent performance in energy production and which will be aesthetically appealing. For this purpose a new interdisciplinary Dutch research consortium has been established, which will evaluate so-called ‘Solar Integration’ from the perspectives of (1) public acceptance, law and governance, (2) biodiversity, ecosystems and spatial quality, (3) PV system configurations in rural and urban landscapes, (4) enabling technologies for integrated PV elements, and (5) design approaches. This research consortium will support Solar Integration by (a) design-driven research on innovations in PV solar energy, (b) the creation of a broad consortium of stakeholders with various backgrounds and interests, (c) execution of the project in both the Netherlands and internationally, and (d) involving adult and young citizens in knowledge utilization.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1847-1849, The growing interest for decentralized production of renewables calls for new energy trade approaches. An energy blockchain platform enables a decentralized energy market, eliminating the need of an intermediary trust entity. We propose to explore the design of an energy blockchain platform in the Qatari context using an ABM simulation framework with real-world data from households in Doha. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the essential components and functioning of a blockchain system and implement a generic ABM simulation framework for energy exchange. A major novel contribution of this work is the development of a virtual environment to test and validate the secure and equitable energy trading among participants using a simplified agent modeling approach to analyze the impacts of peer-to-peer energy trading on market operational performance.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1802-1808, This paper assesses the conditions in which photovoltaic (PV) generators and energy storage systems could be added to existing wind power plants to create a hybrid co-located Wind-PV or Wind-PV-storage grid connected power plant. The approach consists of a sensitivity analysis of the impacts of adding PV generation to wind power plants considering the possibility of complementary primary resources (both on daily and seasonal bases), the project total cost, the use of infrastructure and the avoided costs due to hybridization. Moreover, a study case of a preliminary hybridization potential assessment in two different regions of Brazil is carried out. Preliminary results show that, although there is great availability of primary resource for both wind and solar energy in the Northeastern coast of Brazil, there is not much negative correlation between the primary resources, which diminishes the attractiveness for hybridization. Some complementarity is found, however, in some inland areas, particularly in the state of Bahia, where the least amount of wind normally occurs in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its peak.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1975-1978, Details about Portuguese PV stations are scarce: no public access is provided to project files and environmental impact assessments (EIA) - public-domain information - are mandatory only for power plants of 50 MW or higher capacity, a small minority. In our research, we measured the land use intensity (LUI) of utility-scale PV power plants in continental Portugal and estimated their future land occupation from the capacity additions forecast by the government and from the expected future improvements in LUI due to the increase in PV panel efficiency. A novel method, with land occupation depending simultaneously on the evolution of capacity and panel efficiency, was developed for the purpose. We found 3.336 ha/MW for the average LUI of all stations in operation in continental Portugal, with the LUI varying with mounting type. For land occupation by PV plants in 2050 we found large areas albeit small when compared with other land cover types, e.g. 30 000 hectares would be 1.3% and 0.9% of the current areas dedicated to agriculture and forestry, respectively. However, with EIAs required only for large stations there will be opportunities for land-use conflicts and deep landscape alterations.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1915-1919, Existing models for calculating the horizontal irradiation in the module plane are not sufficiently accurate for modules tilted by 90°, i.e. modules on the façade. First, these models are usually empirical and not designed for this application. Second, the irradiation conditions for façade modules are much more complex, since the environment and the albedo have an impact. In order to identify deficiencies in previously established models and to improve the accuracy of yield predictions for façade modules, an outdoor test facility was built on a south façade at our institute. Since January 2019, all environmental parameters that are required for an energy yield prognosis are continuously being measured every minute. This is the global horizontal irradiance, the global and diffuse vertical irradiance on the façade, the ambient temperature and the wind speed. The energy yield, the current-voltage characteristics and the module temperature of three test modules are also measured every minute. The simulated energy yield of a façade module deviates from the measured yield by up to 7.6% per month if the most suitable model is selected. For on-roof modules, the maximum deviation in this period is 5% and thus significantly smaller.

Despite the advances in the field of solar energy, improvements of solar forecasting techniques, addressing the intermittent electricity production, remain essential for securing its future integration into a wider energy supply. A promising approach to anticipate irradiance changes consists of modeling the cloud cover dynamics from ground taken or satellite images. This work presents preliminary results on the application of deep Convolutional Neural Networks for 2 to 20 min irradiance forecasting using hemispherical sky images and exogenous variables. We evaluate the models on a set of irradiance measurements and corresponding sky images collected in Palaiseau (France) over 8 months with a temporal resolution of 2 min. To outline the learning of neural networks in the context of short-term irradiance forecasting, we implemented visualisation techniques revealing the types of patterns recognised by trained algorithms in sky images. In addition, we show that training models with past samples of the same day improves their forecast skill, relative to the smart persistence model based on the Mean Square Error, by around 10% on a 10 min ahead prediction. These results emphasise the benefit of integrating previous same-day data in short-term forecasting. This, in turn, can be achieved through model fine tuning or using recurrent units to facilitate the extraction of relevant temporal features from past data., Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted for European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU-PVSEC) 2020

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1772-1776, Floating Photovoltaic (FPV) has recently gained a large interest worldwide, essentially as a result of promoting unused land to generate electricity. Like ground-mounted PV projects, FPV feasibility is bound to the power production estimation. Considering a production gain of 0.4% per °C for silicium cells, in addition of cooler local climate over waterbodies, predicting the thermal behavior of PV modules through modelling system arises as a stepping-stone of the next FPV commercial stage. In that context, EDF has launched a floating structure with numbers of high-frequency sensors in order to catch the evolution of interesting physical parameters, contrasting with parameters encountered over ground-mounted structures. To support previous research under tropical conditions, six months of data have been gathered during a cold period of temperate area. Discernable cooling effects were less frequent and profited of lower magnitude in such area. In addition, waterbody physical behavior was highlighted as an important catalyst of module temperature behavior. Thus, global climate conditions emerged as a key factor of cooling effect estimation for FPV. Finally, predicting module temperature has been managed through existing thermal model including in the in-house 3D-ray tracing software PVNOV.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1820-1825, With the diffusion of electric heating and cooling devices, coupling the electric and thermal systems in the residential sector is becoming attractive and could help to increase photovoltaic penetration. The heating and cooling needs of buildings correspond to an important component of the total energy consumption of the residential sector. Thus, it is important to properly design the thermal and electric systems accounting of the interactions from the first phases of the design process. In the design phase, detailed models implemented in dynamic simulation tools can be used for the sizing process of system components, but they hardly can be adopted in optimization algorithms due to the computational time required for each simulation. This is particularly true for multi-objective optimization algorithms, where usually a wide number of simulations is required. In this work, TRNSYS was used to train a machine learning model that is used in a multi-objective optimization with the final goal of improving the design of the thermal system and optimizing the KPIs of a coupled photovoltaic plus battery system.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1719-1725, A round-robin test on a BIPV-module has been performed within the framework of the IEA PVPS Task15. Identical modules from the same series have been measured indoors under STC-conditions to be equal in rated power within a largest difference between lowest and highest performing module of 0.3%. Nine sites spread over the world – with a clear focus on Europe – measured one BIPV-module from this series in a well-described mock-up that mimics a ventilated cold façade. Due to storm damage only seven sites could measure a long enough period to be of value for the comparison. The longest measured period has been around 2 years. However, for each site the best one-year period with hardly any missing datapoints has been selected. Data filtering was needed to account for various measurement failure and errors that are typically occurring in outdoor performance measurements. Finally, datasets of around 40k datapoints per site (of 5-minute resampled time resolution) were analyzed by the IEC 61853-matrix approach. The matrix from this standard was extended with other parameters of interest. Because all sites have a different climate, the matrix is populated in different areas. Therefore, the PR-matrix was found best suited to use as a comparative tool with a threshold for each bin of the matrix set at minimal 0.5% contribution to full-year specific yield. The measurement accuracy in PR for each bin was found to be about 2%, of which the irradiance sensor (either calibrated reference cell or secondary standard pyranometer) is the most contributing. The finally composed bin-wised averaged PR-matrix shows large areas of small difference between sites that are about equal to the measurement accuracy. But there are also areas of the matrix in which distinct features of a site can be observed. Most of these features could either be explained, or are most likely to be originating from an Angle-of-Incidence effect or spectral effect, which are outside the scope of this paper. In conclusion, the authors like to propose that one can quantify the energy performance of a (BI)PV-module in a well-defined mock-up, within a full measurement system accuracy of around +/-2% (with the irradiance sensor as bottleneck), independent of the local climate, following the measurement and analysis protocol of our round-robin as described in this paper.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1923-1926, Vertical bifacial PV systems are becoming of great interest, also thanks to their adaptability to new PV systems integration options, such as on solar noise barriers. A substantial part of the extra yield of those systems comes from harvesting diffuse and reflected irradiance, therefore it is crucial to understand, quantify and optimise the effect of albedo on this type of PV systems. The goal of this work is to show that enhanced albedo can significantly contribute to improving the energy yield of vertical bifacial PV systems. The investigation of the albedo effect is performed both from an experimental and modelling point of view, using the case study of Solar Highways (SH), currently the largest bifacial solar noise barrier in the world. More than 1 year of measurements revealed that placing a high-albedo patch on the rear east side of a SH element led to a monthly energy gain of 3%. On sunny days the energy boost reached more than 6%. Simulations performed with the bifacial PV modelling tool BIGEYE showed that the gain associated with enhanced albedo can go up to 10%/year thanks to the optimisation of some configuration parameters such as albedo coefficient and ground slope.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1688-1694, The objective of this study is to characterize and compare day-ahead forecast errors of PV power generation and power demand in regional scale, and in a scenario of large penetration of PV power. Furthermore the effects of both forecast errors on a residual demand forecast are also investigated. The study targets the area with the highest penetration of PV power in Japan, Kyushu region. The forecasts of PV power and power demand were done with machine learning techniques and numerical weather prediction data. An analysis of forecasts of PV power indicates that its large forecast errors have an asymmetry of values according to the forecast value. Such asymmetry was not observed in the case of power demand. The results also show that PV power forecast errors seem to be uncorrelated with those of power demand forecasts. Regarding residual power demand forecasts, its errors had a variability resembling the one of power demand forecast errors and outliers approaching the values of those of PV power forecast errors. Forecasts for a 2-year period had RMSE of 0.059 GW/GWpeak for PV power forecasts, 0.028 GW/GWpeak for power demand forecasts and 0.041 GW/GWpeak for residual power demand forecasts.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1831-1833, This paper presents design considerations and results for a hybrid solar system installed at a residence in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. Design considerations include the choice of inverter, solar panels as well as the arrangement and mounting of the solar panels. Results presented illustrate the effect of the solar system for different scenarios typical of hybrid inverter behaviour in that energy can be utilized from the utility grid, solar panels or from the battery pack. Furthermore, energy not utilized by loads can be stored back into the grid under certain settings within the inverter. Electrical energy utilization and storage needs to be optimized for specific circumstances, for which illustrations are given. Suitable conclusions are reached, and suggestions made.

37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 1706-1710, The dual use of a photovoltaic module as a road surface element imposes additional and demanding constraints on the design of the module and on the materials used in its construction. In real use conditions of passing traffic and climatological extremes, the solar road module has to withstand severe mechanical, physical and chemical solicitations while maintaining its PV electricity generation capability. The validation of a solar road module product therefore requires a broad reliability testing strategy far beyond the standard PV module certification protocols. The solar road module we present in this paper, on one hand preserves a module power evolution in TC and DH testing comparable to classic PV modules. On the other hand, we discuss a number of severe mechanical tests related to its use as a road surface, which the module also passes with success: metallic shock impact test up to 10 J; 460 kg weight drop test up to 3.2 MPa; metallic indentation test up to 120 MPa; carrousel traffic test up to 20 years equivalent lifetime. Finally, a beginning is made with combined climatic – mechanical testing, which will be further pursued in the future.