Smart Active Envelope Solutions, Integration of Photovoltaic/Thermal Solar Concentrator in the Building Façade

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies, such as photovoltaic systems and collectors, play a key role in buildings smart facades. Especially when solar technologies are building integrated, a good power performance within the NZEB scenario is achieved with innovative architectural solutions (Nelli L. C., Soluzioni innovative per edifici Nearly Zero Energy. Esperienze di progettazione ambientale. Firenze: DIDA Press, 2018). This is the reason why, even if photovoltaic technologies and thermal collectors are widely available at competitive prices, innovative architectural design and implementation approaches must be explored.

This work shows many solutions of modular PV/T low concentrated solar devices, flexible, easy to install and manage and designed as façade components for building integration. A PV/T solar concentrator has the advantage to achieve good energy performances, because solar radiation is not only converted into electric power but, thanks to the heat recovery, the infrared component (which cannot be converted into electricity by the solar cells) is utilized to produce hot water, and then thermal power. The proposed solar module is innovative and suitable to be integrated into new and existing buildings as a shading device element and light shelf component. The proposed system contributes to the reduction of the overall energy consumption, thanks to the synergistic combination of electric power generation (using PV cells) and high-quality heat capture. Therefore, the module results are useful for the reduction of energy consumption for cooling and lighting loads, especially transferring natural light into the deep of the rooms. The contributions of this study are different design solutions for industrial production, smart components, produced for the integration in metal façades, double skin façade, light shelter and shading devices.