News
International Energy Agency group highlights building-integrated solar products

A team of researchers within the International Energy Agency (IEA) have produced an online Building Integrated Solar Product Gallery, a collection of 30 active and passive solar systems integrated into building envelopes with the goal of raising awareness of these technologies with the architectural, developer and building owner communities.

The project embraces a broad range of products – photovoltaic modules, air heating façade elements, water-driven solar thermal collectors, PV-Thermal elements, motorized shadings or electrochromic windowpanes.

The gallery introduces each product with a photo and a headline. By clicking on the photo, a subpage includes a detailed product description and a table that identifies strengths (S) and weaknesses (W), as well as opportunities (O) for growth and threats (T).

The Gallery includes 30 technologies from 11 different countries divided into three categories:

• The first group is titled Solar Energy Harvesting Systems. It includes an air heating solutions from Canada consisting of unglazed solar collectors and coloured building integrated PV panels from Italy or Switzerland that better match the architectural design of the building. A concrete storage solar absorber from Austria can be integrated into a façade element directly at the point of hot water consumption in the building.
• The second group are Solar Gains Control Systems which contains switchable windows from Germany that can change transparency between clear and opaque state within seconds or a sun protection grid as well from Germany that can be embedded in the cavity between the glass panes to block direct solar radiation, but let diffuse daylight enter the interior.
• The third category are Hybrid Solar Energy Systems. Here you find a smart, fully transparent window from the Netherlands that is capable of generating clean electricity and collecting environmental data.

Building Integrated Solar Product Gallery