Performance and financial evaluation of various photovoltaic vertical facades on high-rise building in Malaysia

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 134; pp. 306 - 318
• Main Authors: Ghazali, Azhar, Salleh, Elias @ Ilias, Haw, Lim Chin, Mat, Sohif, Sopian, Kamaruzzaman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.01.2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Building envelopes; Building facades; Building integrated photovoltaic; Buildings; Clean energy; Climatology; Cost analysis; Decision making; Design; Electricity consumption; Energy consumption; Energy demand; Energy management; Evaluation; Facades; High rise building; High rise buildings; Installation; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Power efficiency; Protective coatings; Renewable energy; Renewable energy technologies; Solar cells; Thin films; Urban areas; Vertical façade; Malaysia; Building integrated photovoltaic; Vertical façade; High rise building
• ISSN: 0378-7788; 1872-6178
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.11.003

•Maximising east and west façade with PV system able to generate higher electricity.•East orientation is better for vertical PV application on buildings in Malaysia.•The net saving on electricity cost for vertical PV system is about 200,000 per year.•The payback period for vertical PV system 12 years. Photovoltaic (PV) façade on building envelope in an urban area can potentially produce clean electricity to meet the energy demand of the buildings and also provide weather protection. In order to assess the potential of PV application on building façade, energy generated and cost related to the PV installation, it must be analysed during the design process so that it can provide enough information to the designer, investor, and end user to make a decision in implementing renewable technologies. This paper focus on performance and financial evaluation using System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to evaluate the potential of vertical photovoltaic façade system on a high-rise building in Malaysia based on 5 possible design scenario using Heterojunction Intrinsic Thin-film module (HIT-Si) with the nominal efficiency of 15.6%. The annual energy generated through the vertical photovoltaic system is between 400–700MWh meanwhile roof system generate about 240MWh annually. The payback period for the vertical photovoltaic system in Malaysia is about 12 years. Although the installation of photovoltaic vertical façade in the tropical region can be quite challenging especially in urban area, but with proper studies and carefully design approach, its can open new opportunities in Malaysian built environment.