A New Dynamic and Vertical Photovoltaic Integrated Building Envelope for High-Rise Glaze-Facade Buildings

Abstract

Substantially glazed facades are extensively used in contemporary high-rise buildings to achieve attractive architectural aesthetics. Inherent conflicts exist among architectural aesthetics, building energy consumption, and solar energy harvesting for glazed facades. In this study, we addressed these conflicts by introducing a new dynamic and vertical photovoltaic integrated building envelope (dvPVBE) that offers extraordinary flexibility with weather-responsive slat angles and blind positions, superior architectural aesthetics, and notable energy-saving potential. Three hierarchical control strategies were proposed for different scenarios of the dvPVBE: power generation priority (PGP), natural daylight priority (NDP), and energy-saving priority (ESP). Moreover, the PGP and ESP strategies were further analyzed in the simulation of a dvPVBE. An office room integrated with a dvPVBE was modeled using EnergyPlus. The influence of the dvPVBE in improving the building energy efficiency and corresponding optimal slat angles was investigated under the PGP and ESP control strategies. The results indicate that the application of dvPVBEs in Beijing can provide up to 131% of the annual energy demand of office rooms and significantly increase the annual net energy output by at least 226% compared with static photovoltaic (PV) blinds. The concept of this novel dvPVBE offers a viable approach by which the thermal load, daylight penetration, and energy generation can be effectively regulated.

Keywords

• Weather-responsive facades
• Building energy efficiency
• Dynamic photovoltaic integrated building envelopes (PVBEs)
• Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs)