Project description
PV technology for building energy self-sustainability
Commercial and residential buildings guzzle as much as 40 % of the energy in the EU. The growing need for self-sustainability to ensure nearly zero-energy buildings has led to innovative technology that allows buildings to produce electricity. Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) emerges as an alternative to conventional building materials in parts of the building structure such as the façades. However, there is a lack of genuinely integrated and creative BIPV modules in the market. The EU-funded cs-BIPV-FS project is proposing crystalsol, a cost-efficient and transparent PV technology combining a powerful and strong monocrystalline absorber with low cost roll-to-roll (R2R) module production. The technology permits the production of semi-finished modules that can be fully integrated into building materials.
Objective
Roughly 40% of the current global energy demand is consumed in commercial and residential buildings. Thanks to advances in technology, Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics (BIPV) have emerged, enabling all buildings to become electricity producers and strive towards self-sustainability.
Due to stringent energy efficiency norms in the EU, demand for BIPV products is soaring: PV incorporated in shells of multi-story buildings is required for supplying these high rise structures with energy. But also other artificial structures, e.g. sound barriers along highways, shall be used for energy provision, without further impact on the environment. Yet, truly integrated and aesthetic BIPV modules are currently neither available in commercial volumes nor at sustainable costs. Prices of products with still limited adaptability hinder the actual market growth.
crystalsol addresses these shortcomings with a patented and entirely new type of cost-efficient, flexible and transparent PV technology where advantages of an efficient and stable monocrystalline absorber and low cost roll-to-roll (R2R) module production are combined. Due to the reason that crystalsol is able to produce semi-finished modules that allow full integration into building elements without any expensive and complex integration steps, BIPV products can pricewise finally compete with standard building shell elements (like facades without PV). This offers a huge competitive advantage, resulting in an enormous potential in the BIPV market.
This Feasibility Study (cs-BIPV-FS) will bring crystalsol closer to the market entry stage. It will be a first step towards full commercialisation before upscaling the company’s operations and production processes. The cs-BIPV-FS project will help to analyse and conclude the technical feasibility and commercial potential of the ground-breaking BIPV technology, resulting in advancing the innovative technological concept into a credible business case.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
12618 Tallinn
Estonia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.