P1. Building Integrated Photovoltaics > Background 

The widespread use of building-integrated photovoltaics appears feasible as a result of the continuing decline in photovoltaic manufacturing costs, the relative ease in which photovoltaics can be incorporated within a building envelope, and the fact that buildings account for over 40 percent of the energy used within the United States.

Specific examples of building integrated photovoltaic products are curtain walls that incorporate crystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous cell technologies. This research will address a significant barrier to the widespread adoption of photovoltaics--the lack of long term measured data to validate predictive performance models needed to quantify achievable energy savings. The resulting validated model will be used to quantify the energy performance of building-integrated photovoltaics for climatic regions having high growth rates within the State of California. The resulting tool and analytic results will provide a basis in follow-on market transformation work in California aimed at capturing this valuable energy resource to reduce grid-provided electricity consumption and peak loads.

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