Studying the outdoor performance of organic building-integrated photovoltaics laminated to the cladding of a building prototype

The outdoor dependence of module orientation and diurnal climatic conditions on the performance of Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs) configured for Building Integrated PV (BIPV) arrays is reported. The study focuses upon a Northern European climate and the significance of module orientation upon energy yield across diurnal, seasonal change and climatic conditions are discussed. It is shown that the optimum position of a BIPV facade depends upon season and that a south facing BIPV facade provides the greatest energy yield during winter months. The results also show how west-facing modules can significantly contribute to power generation during peak power periods (5–8 p.m.), which is imperative for balancing energy demand for buildings of the future and in particular supply the energy needs of buildings during peak hours in Northern Europe. Electrical characteristics under standard and part-load conditions were collated from laboratory scale OPV module experimental data and scaled for commercial-size modules in order to simulate BIPV arrays based upon OPVs. The simulated data is compared to experimental data and the closeness shows that BIPV systems based upon OPVs can be accurately simulated prior to installation. The system simulations compare typical energy demand profiles of small commercial buildings and illustrate that OPV arrays show strong potential to be used with excess energy generation for 8 months of the year based upon a 4.22kWp OPV system. Four 4.22kWp OPV systems scenarios have been investigated for (1) the highest annual energy generation, (2) architecturally evenly-spaced around the building (avoiding a North facade), (3) grid-balancing and (4) East-West split. Whilst Scenario 4 shows the lowest overall energy yield over the course of the year, energy production during peak hours is substantially higher than in other scenarios. The options presented show that OPVs are viable to use in BIPVs and can adequately meet the energy demand of a small commercial building during spring, summer and autumn in Norther Europe and can be adapted to end user's needs.