What Is BIPV?
The term BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) is a loaded term. What is it really?
Photovoltaic roofing tiles? OK, that makes sense. Although that's a tough product to sell. Just ask now bankrupt Open Energy. Or perennial fund raiser Redwood Renewables. Merging electronics with roof tiles, roofers with electricians, is a difficult mix. Sharp, SunPower, Suntech and others have made forays into this type of product.
How about flexible solar that sticks on roofs? Like United Solar Ovonic (a-Si) or Ascent Solar (CIGS)? These are innovative, lightweight, flexible technologies – but what part of "Building Integrated" don't you understand? These are "Building Applied" and don't form a structural part of the building envelope. No doubt there are applications for these products, especially when light weight is a crucial consideration. But they are not truly building integrated.
France has a generous BIPV tariff but BIPV is a pretty vague term in French as well. According to a colleague: "As you're driving through the French countryside you'll occasionally see its ambiguity put to good use on bare-boned lean-tos with 'integrated' PV panels. The BIPV provision basically says that for it to qualify for the €0.65/tariff the panels need to form an aesthetic part of the building architecture. Funny."
Real BIPV
The real revolution for BIPV is to bring PV into the built environment and transform PV from Greentech into Maintech – making solar power part of the building envelope. This is the type of BIPV designed and integrated by companies like altPower.
I spoke with Anthony Periera, the CEO of altPower, a solar installer and integrator who designs and deploys BIPV. Real BIPV.
His most recent BIPV project, the Visionaire in New York City, is pictured below.
Photovoltaics on Visionaire's mechanical bulkhead.
altPower's BIPV is assembled with "cassette-built pre-glazed construction" also called "unitized curtain wall." That's essentially modular window units, pre-assembled off-site – as opposed to "stick construction" where the glass is infilled on-site.
altPower designs the unitized curtain wall, contracts its' construction to others, after which it is installed by ornamental iron workers (as opposed to glaziers or electricians).
"The BIPV market is pretty slow but will come back when construction comes back," said Periera. altPower mostly does rooftops and claims to have 10 megawatts to 20 megawatts in the pipeline. It has three BIPV projects totaling 150 kilowatts in the pipeline.
The PV curtain walls cost ~$180 per square foot installed of which the module is ~$120 per square foot.
altPower is one of the early pioneers in the untapped and huge-potential BIPV market. Maintech, not Greentech.
