A parametric approach to evaluate the impact of BIPV façades on outdoor thermal comfort in different urban contexts

Abstract

While the promotion of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) as a key strategy for the energy transition is widely accepted, the consequences of a large-scale BIPV deployment on the urban microclimate are not yet fully understood. Furthermore, the few existing studies addressing this issue do not lead to a consistent conclusion. This study, therefore, aims to investigate how different levels of BIPV deployment on building façades affect outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) for pedestrians in urban areas during the warmest day of the year using a parametric approach based on simulations. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted using Envi-met for 80 urban configurations in two climatic zones. The results indicate that the impact of BIPV on urban air temperatures can vary throughout the day, with temperature differences ranging from -0.21 to +0.46 °C for Zurich and -0.23 to +0.42 °C for Singapore, compared to scenarios without BIPV at pedestrian level in front of building façades. Among the studied parameters, ground surface material and street width were found to be the most influential, with an average increase of 1.76 and 0.37 °C in air temperature at 12 pm, respectively.