MSE 298 Seminar (Zoom): BIPV - A Bad Idea or Tomorrow's Mainstream Application?

Zoom: Meeting ID 842 506 6501, Passcode 587901

Abstract: In 1994, PowerLight introduced a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) product, touting it as saving money (avoiding the cost of installing a conventional roof) while integrating PV into an attractive roof. At the time it was introduced, the mainstream opinion was that the future of PV would be building-integrated and that utility-scale applications were a nonstarter. Today, utility-scale PV accounts for more than half of the world PV installations and BIPV is a small, though growing market (with most rooftop systems being building-applied rather than building-integrated.) Was BIPV a bad idea, or was BIPV an idea whose time had/has not come? Many things have changed since 1994; could BIPV be poised to become a mainstream application? Tesla, GAF and other companies are introducing BIPV products today. Will they be more successful? This talk will review many things that have changed (including power electronics, products with lower temperature coefficients, demonstration of PV as an accepted technology so that it’s not such a risk to builders and the value of generating solar electricity near load centers, etc.), suggesting that there may be a new opportunity for BIPV. Then, I will review how a shift back to a goal of large-scale deployment of BIPV and related products changes the research agenda and the prospects for funding increases in the future.

Bio: Sarah Kurtz obtained her doctorate in 1985 from Harvard University and now works at UC Merced after spending more than 30 years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in Golden, CO. She is known for her contributions to developing multijunction, GaInP/GaAs solar cells, supporting the concentrator photovoltaic (PV) industry and leading efforts on PV performance and reliability. Her work has been recognized with a jointly received Dan David Prize in 2007, the Cherry Award in 2012, C3E Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. At UC Merced, she is working to help the university grow and support the energy transition through a variety of studies, including a current study on long-duration storage.