Building-integrated solar market ready to explode

The market for photovoltaic solar power integrated into buildings will grow 15-fold in the next seven years, according to a new report from analyst firm NanoMarkets.

Worth about $528m this year, the building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market will balloon to $8.2bn in 2015, the report claims.

The company sees the market as representing the third generation of solar technology. The first focused on flat panels with little or no integration into building architecture. The second used the solar panels to replace some aspects of the building structure. The third sees solar material embedded directly into the fabric of the building in the form of solar windows, walls and roofing tiles.

Although crystalline silicon (c-SI) PV material still features heavily in the market, the efficiency of thin-film solar material is increasing said the report's author, Lawrence Gasman.

"C-Si is already a fairly substantial part of BIPV, because until a few years ago it was all there was, and because it is still the way to the highest efficiencies," he said. "But for real integration, such as lamination onto tiles, and cladding, thin film is the only way to go."

Aside from solar cladding and roof tiles, BIPV providers are also turning to photovoltaic glass for use in windows. However, for BIPV to take off in the residential market, costs must be at least halved, Nanomarkets said, adding that retrofitted BIPV cost $1.70 per watt more than materials incorporated into new developments.

"Buildings that are constructed with PV from the outset are usually constructed with passive solar architectures, so one gets better energy costs all round," said Gasman. "Anyway, the additional costs of retrofits have long been enough to put off many potential users."