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Photovoltaic Façade of BCIT Technology Place
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Photo: Michael Ross, RER Renewable Energy Research

A 3.5 kWp photovoltaic array is integrated into the dark glass façade of the southwest corner of Technology Place, a building on the campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The 90 semi-transparent and opaque modules in the array are visually similar to the regular glazing units. The wiring is hidden in the mullions. The result is a slick, high-tech look appropriate for a building that houses startup companies.

The thin-film amorphous silicon cell technology used here has several advantages in this type of application. First, its low efficiency means that the per unit area cost of the facade is lower than with other technologies, since photovoltaic cells are priced on the basis of their power output. Second, it can be made inconspicuous as a transluscent or opaque thin film, facilitating visual integration. Third, toxic materials are absent from the cells themselves, eliminating concerns about health hazards in the case of a building fire.

The considerable expense of a photovoltaic array may be more palatable if the array supplants costly façade materials-- this is one motivation for building integration of photovoltaics. But sometimes photovoltaics can be too well integrated into a building façade: some people no doubt pass this building without ever noticing its photovoltaic array. For such people, it is as though the builder paid for marble but got a material that looks like concrete. Thus, the challenge is to design an array that looks perfectly integrated with the building, but is identifiably electricity-generating photovoltaic technology.

For more information about the use of amorphous silicon photovoltaics in commercial buildings, consult this report .

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Created 2005/10/03   Updated 2007/10/03     ©2007 RER Renewable Energy Research