“Building Integrated Photovoltaics and DSSC-Glassblocks"

According to many market analysts, Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) represents the future of photovoltaic (PV) industry as well as one of the strategies for the achievement of zero-energy building standards and UE goals for the next years. Dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC) is a low-cost and very versatile solar technology, offering a wide range of possibilities in terms of colour, transparency and design: hence DSSC are particularly suited for BIPV and could give a big contribution in this direction. Starting from those considerations, this paper will show the first results of a research aimed at the integration of DSSC with the glassblock for the construction of multifunctional translucent PV panels, precast and prestressed, able to be easily integrated in the building envelope and highly customizable. This research is included in a larger work that has been carried out at the Department of Architecture of Palermo University about the improvement of glassblocks performance in order to use them for the construction of sustainable glazed building envelopes even in Mediterranean and Tropical areas. The glassblock is a high-performance type of glass, particularly fit in the field of sustainable architectural envelopes. Four different hypotheses of integration of the DSSC with the glassblock have been formulated and described in a patent recently taken out in Italy. The process of deposition of the cells on the single glassblock, according to the four hypotheses, and the performance of this novel kind of PV-integrated building product will be discussed in terms of energy production, optical transmittance, economic costs and aesthetical effects. Moreover, the aspects about the assembly and the installation of those DSSC-integrated glassblocks for the construction of translucent PV panels, coinciding with the building envelope itself, will be discoursed. In this field another patent, about the dry-assembly system of the glassblock panel, has been recently taken out.