Exploring the potential of organic cells in building integrated photovoltaic systems

Abstract

Besides the ecological advantages, the Photovoltaic plays a very important role in the daylight provision. Although the capacity of collecting energy for the use in buildings is increasing, the visual performance of the technology seems not to have the same importance. In this work the photovoltaic technologies available will be examined and evaluated in terms of both visual and ecological performance. The materials, the installation methods and the energy conversion capacity together with the efficiency and daylight calculation will demonstrate the potential of the organic solar cells. The market counts now three main technologies and, for their bad efficiency, Organic PVs are not considered a good choice. Their potential will be analyzed by evaluating a sample office building with integrated photovoltaic systems in order to see the different visual behavior of the technologies and to prove the good performance of OPVs, which will make them the best choice in the building sector´s future. Two main simulations will be conducted: a thermal evaluation for the energy production and its capacity to help the building energy consumption beside a more important visual evaluation of one office room. The aim is to compute performance indicators that define the inside visual comfort and to analyze their results to see the behavior of a layer of OPVs integrated into windows. The expectation is to demonstrate that this integration will not deny the visual comfort that daylight gives and together will provide electrical energy.