Up to 40% of EU’s electricity demand by 2020 from roofs
This means that over 1,500 GWp of PV could technically be installed in Europe which would generate annually about 1,400TWh, representing 40% of the total electricity demand by 2020.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), the world’s largest photovoltaic industry association together with Design-Build Solar, has organized today, 23 June, an event on Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems, at the premises of the Ministry of housing in Madrid, in the framework of the “Solar Decathlon”. The event will count more than 170 participants representing mainly architects, installers, representatives from the renewable and construction industries. The speakers, coming from all around Europe, will address the latest technological and market trends within this sector as well as the economic and regulatory frameworks in Spain and within the main European PV markets.
The integration of photovoltaic energy in buildings provides an enormous development potential for the PV industry as well as for the construction sector.
PV applications, apart from contributing to the generation of electricity and improving the passive energy behaviour of buildings, can replace conventional building components and also provide different functions such as, water tightening, weather protection, heat insulation, light modifications, etc.
“Spain has a unique opportunity to develop the BIPV market, which in addition to leveraging the decentralised nature of PV generation - energy generated by the citizen for the citizen -, would enable the stimulation of tens of thousands of jobs firmly anchored in the local economy, many of which in the construction industry”, said Virgilio Navarro, EPIA’s Vice-president and CEO of ATERSA.
Currently in some European countries the BIPV market is driven by specific support schemes, designed in such a way that BIPV systems are rewarded with a higher tariff per kWh generated than for Building Adapted PV (BAPV), where the PV modules are installed on top of the existing building structure and do not provide any additional function. This acknowledges the added effort and extra cost of integrating PV as part of the building envelope. It is in particular the case in France and Italy where BIPV already represents over one third of the annual market. In other countries such as Germany and Spain, where support schemes are not differentiated between both types of systems, BIPV only represents a very marginal share of the market (
