Performance Assessment of a Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal System in Mediterranean Climate—A Numerical Simulation Approach

Karol Bot, Laura Aelenei, Maria da Glória Gomes and Carlos Santos Silva
Additional contact information
Karol Bot: Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), 1649-038 Lisbon, Portugal
Laura Aelenei: Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG), 1649-038 Lisbon, Portugal
Maria da Glória Gomes: CERIS, Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Georesources (DECivil), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Carlos Santos Silva: IN+, Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research /LARSyS, Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEM), Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-25

Abstract: This study addresses the thermal and energy performance assessment of a Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal (BIPVT) system installed on the façade of a test room in Solar XXI, a Net Zero Energy Building (NZEB) located in Lisbon, Portugal. A numerical analysis using the dynamic simulation tool EnergyPlus was carried out for assessing the performance of the test room with the BIPVT integrated on its façade through a parametric analysis of 14 scenarios in two conditions: a) receiving direct solar gains on the glazing surface and b) avoiding direct solar gains on the glazing surface. Additionally, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of the BIPVT system was performed using ANSYS Fluent. The findings of this work demonstrate that the BIPVT has a good potential to improve the sustainability of the building by reducing the nominal energy needs to achieve thermal comfort, reducing up to 48% the total energy needs for heating and cooling compared to the base case. The operation mode must be adjusted to the other strategies already implemented in the room (e.g., the presence of windows and blinds to control direct solar gains), and the automatic operation mode has proven to have a better performance in the scope of this work.

Keywords: building integrated photovoltaic thermal system; whole-building dynamic energy simulation; computational fluid dynamics simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2887/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2887/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2887-:d:367614

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().