Analysis and Monitoring Results of a BIPV System in Northern Italy

This paper presents the monitoring results of a PV system integrated into the facade of an office building situated in the city center of Bolzano (Italy). Data regarding PV production, climatic characteristics and module temperature have been collected for a six months period. The temperature reached by the modules is, as expected and confirmed by monitored data that registered a peak of 57.4°C, one critical aspect of this BIPV system since it is integrated into the facade without ventilation. Simulations show that, considering one single day, ventilation of the modules could enhance the power production of 3.5%. In order to verify the correspondence between simulations and monitored values, a comparison considering one single day was carried out: the mathematical model used by the software for simulations, manages to predict the PV array irradiation and the average temperature of the modules with good accuracy (respectively -2% and +0.2%), while the power production is strongly underestimated (-20%).This could be due to several reasons that are discussed in the paper.