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Quite often there is a tendency to avoid the use of photovoltaics because it is believed that it costs significantly more than traditional building...
Brilliant BIPV. But how much does it cost?

Quite often there is a tendency to avoid the use of photovoltaics because it is believed that it costs significantly more than traditional building solutions.

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Self-consumption or optimization of the energy production?
Since most European countries abrogated the program of incentives “Feed-in-Tariff”, in order to maximize the economic benefits of a photovoltaic system, it is necessary an increase of the self-consumption rate of the energy produced. A photovoltaic system should be ideally designed considering the energy demand hourly profile of the building. A photovoltaic installation on an east or west oriented roof or facade, compared to a traditional south-oriented one, allow to better cover the morning and afternoon electric load peaks.
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Daily load profile and energy production of a multi-unit building.

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Is a BIPV envelope really more expensive than a conventional one?
A BIPV system integrated into a facade or into a roof is often classified as a cost ineffective building solution. This happens when the BIPV envelope is directly compared with a similar non-photovoltaic solution (cladding in fiber cement, stone, glass, tiles, etc.) without considering the economic benefits of the energy production. In reality the extra cost of a BIPV solution is the difference between the cost of the photovoltaic cladding plus the accessories to make it active (BOS) and the cost of a similar solution without the photovoltaic components.
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Extra cost definition.

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A practical example for a BIPV facade and roof in Ticino
In the following table are listed the information needed to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of a BIPV facade and roof installation in southern Switzerland. Compared to a non-active solution (fiber cement cladding), the extra cost of the BIPV cladding will be recovered in 12 years.
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Calculation of ROI – summary table.

See also
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Product overview for solar building skins - Status Report 2017
Visit the page
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BIPV BOOST - Update on BIPV market and stakeholder analysis
Visit the page
SolAR