Building-integrated solar photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) technology: a review on the design innovations, aesthetic values, performance limits, storage options and policies

ABSTRACT Compared to the existing literature review on the photovoltaic thermal (PVT) technique, very few review articles on building integrated solar photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) were reported and this prompted us to present a review of BIPVT literature. The objectives of the present review are to classify the time line of evolution of various designs of BIPVT systems, to quantify the aesthetic value of BIPVT devices, to identify threshold limits of performance and useful computer-based tools available to carry out their performance analysis, to recognize the technical aspects to be considered during the selection of a particular energy storage option and to explain the various policy scenarios. The present review revealed the existence of 3-time regimes of the evolution of the design of BIPVT systems and a higher aesthetic value of 0.5 was observed for façade mounted BIPVT design. The review also indicated that the threshold limit of thermal and electrical efficiency of the BIPVT system was about 80% and 20%, respectively. A variety of PCM-based thermal energy storage materials were proposed compared to other energy storage options. Policy measures undertaken under various policy scenarios were also highlighted in this review.