Impacts of the shading-type building-integrated photovoltaic claddings on electricity generation and cooling load component through shaded windows

The shading-type building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) claddings can act as power generators as well as external shading devices of a building, which reduce the energy consumption of the building. However, there is little information about energy impacts of different tilt angles of the shading-type BIPV claddings. By considering the typical meteorological conditions of Hong Kong, the energy performance of the shading-type BIPV claddings, in terms of the electricity generation and the cooling load reduction, is analyzed in this paper. The optimum tilt angle of PV modules for maximum electricity generation is found to be 20 degrees instead of local latitude. Combining electricity generation and cooling load reduction, it can be concluded that the optimum tilt angles for the first type of the shading-type BIPV claddings vary from 30 degrees to 50 degrees, while the optimum tilt angle for the second type is 0 degrees. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.