Photovoltaics for buildings
The photovoltaic element is a double glazed compound with integrated solar cells for power generation from sunlight.
These elements can be combined with all regular glass structures and can be used for a variety of applications: As curtain wall cold façade, warm facade, insulating and shading glazing, in roofs, winter gardens and facades or as complex/costly structural glazing construction. The varying sizes of the elements (available from 20 x 20 to 200 x 300 cm), the adjustable light permeability (varying cell spacing) as well as the possibility of using solar cells from different manufacturers allow for a variety of photovoltaic applications in façades and roofs leaving architects a maximum degree of freedom. Thus, façades and roofs are exploited for regenerative power generation free of emissions
The 4 Times Square building features thin-film PV panels that replace traditional glass cladding material. The PV curtain wall extends from the 35th to the 48th floor on the south and east walls of the building, making it a highly visible part of the midtown New York skyline.
A variety of processes and semiconductor materials can be used with a-Si to produce differing attributes, including efficiency, color, patterning, and transparency. As a result, thin film modules are attractive and favored by architects for use in building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV).
For a superior performance one can use high tech SPD - smart glass or ECD - smart glass.
Thin-film modules, which include amorphous Crystalline silicon (a-Si), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and cadmium telluride (Cd-Te), are made by coating entire sheets of substrate, generally glass or stainless steel, with micron-thin layers of semiconductor materials.
These products have several important distinguishing features:
they have a relatively uniform, dark color that is aesthetically appealing, making them particularly attractive for applications with high visibility, and especially ideal for BIPV (building integrated PV)
they are frameless, which eliminates the need for individual module grounding and alleviates rainwater “damming” and sediment buildup
a-Si modules produce more electricity per rated watt than single crystalline silicon. PV Products are offered in the form of flexible laminates for building integrated PV solutions.
Flexible PV-laminates can be bonded to conventional metal roofing panels, single-ply membranes, modified bitumen roofing materials and others.
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