The Impact of Cracks in BIPV Modules on Power Outputs: A Case Study Based on Measured and Simulated Data

Kyung-Woo Lee, Hyo-Mun Lee, Ru-Da Lee, Dong-Su Kim and Jong-Ho Yoon
Additional contact information
Kyung-Woo Lee: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Hyo-Mun Lee: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Ru-Da Lee: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Dong-Su Kim: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea
Jong-Ho Yoon: Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon 34158, Korea

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Crack issues afflicting a building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) system are major concerns in terms of the system’s maintenance and power degradation. Although there may be many circumstances that bring about cracks in BIPV modules during the installation process, identifying the degradation of PV module efficiency resulting from the effects of cracks tends to be a very difficult task unless actual indoor or outdoor tests or detailed electroluminescence imaging tests are conducted. Many current studies have demonstrated that cracks may or may not impact the output performance of PV modules depending on the damage levels or where the damage is located. For BIPV applications such as replacement for building materials, there is still a lack of information and case studies addressing crack issues in a quantitative manner for evaluating BIPV output performance. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to investigate the effects of cracks in BIPV modules on power outputs and to identify detailed relationships between the cracks and power output based on experimental and simulated analysis. An experimental facility located in Daejeon, South Korea, was used to gather data from cracked and non-cracked BIPV modules. By using the field-measured data and facility’ information, a simulation model was developed using SolarPro software, and a simulated-based analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of cracks in BIPV modules on output values after proper validation of the model. The results from this study reveal that cracks in BIPV modules exhibit significant degradation in BIPV modules’ outputs of up to 43% reduction during the experimental period. From the annual comparative results, output degradations of 34.6–35.4% were estimated when the BIPV modules included cracks. As a result, the cracks in the BIPV modules could be carefully addressed as issues occurring in the BIPV installation process.

Keywords: Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV); impact of cracks in BIPV module; BIPV outdoor test; simulation-based analysis; BIPV performance evaluation; SolarPro; power degradation; validation of simulated BIPV model (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: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/836/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/4/836/ (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:14:y:2021:i:4:p:836-:d:494382

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 ().