Performance assessment of BIPV/T double-skin facade for various climate zones in Australia: Effects on energy consumption

Being the interface between indoor and outdoor, building envelope significantly influences indoor heating and cooling loads and thus affects building energy consumption. This paper presents the results of numerical simulation for the performance prediction of building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal double-skin facade (BIPV/T-DSF). Different BIPV materials (amorphous silicon PV, dye-sensitized solar cell and Perovskite based solar cells) were considered as the exterior cladding of a North-facing facade of an office building located in Australia. The performance assessment involved the selection of three climates in Australia, represented by the cities of Darwin, Sydney and Canberra. The air cavity created between the outer skin and the inner one were alternatively assessed in the non-ventilated, naturally-ventilated and mechanically-ventilated modes of operation, while a full sensitivity analysis was performed in order to assess the influence of different design parameters, such as internal skin's thermal transmittance, cavity depth, ventilation louvres' opening ratio and cavity ventilation rate. By comparing the different operational modes and BIPV technologies, it was found that naturally-ventilated DSF integrating the Perovskite-based solar cell could be the optimal configuration achieving the highest savings. Total annual energy savings of 34.1%, 86% and 106% annual were reached respectively in Darwin, Sydney and Canberra, in comparison to conventional technologies. In addition, this facade technology could further reduce the building's heating and cooling loads by harvesting thermal energy generated within the air cavity. The study finally demonstrated that the harvested electrical and thermal energy from the facade could cover a significant share of building's energy consumption.