Assessment of building energy performance integrated with solar PV: Towards a net zero energy residential campus in India

[Display omitted] •Design and simulation of an integrated grid-connected rooftop and façade BIPV for low-rise residential buildings in an academic campus.•Energy retrofitting strategies for the three different typologies of housing identified based on built area and energy consumption patterns.•Integration of Façade BIPV with Rooftop BIPV increases the system production to up-to 62.5%.•Typology-wise Residential Energy benchmarking created by evaluating the Energy Performance Index.•Evaluation of Net-ZEB potential of buildings as a function of the Energy Performance (EPI), and Energy Generation Index (EGI). Building Applied Photovoltaics (BAPV) such as Roof-top Solar PV has gained significant attention in recent years for harnessing the untapped potential of renewable energy sources. However, rooftop PV poses hurdles of space restriction and shadowing in densely packed urban residential neighborhoods. This study aims to design and assess the feasibility of an integrated grid-connected Rooftop and Façade Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) for meeting the energy demand of residential buildings on an academic campus. Three distinctive groups of residential typologies have been investigated in this study, categorized based on built area and occupants’ past energy usage. Additionally, the variation in the measured Energy Performance index of the three different residential groups is illustrated to pave the path for the development of a typology-based residential energy benchmarking and labelling system. The Solar PV system has been designed for the maximum household energy demand recorded in CoVID-affected years due to high residential electricity usage in this period. The study showcases that integration of façade BIPV for low-rise residential buildings increases the system energy production to up to 62.5 % based on the utilized surface area for active PV. Furthermore, the Net Zero Energy Building (ZEB) potential for each typology has been achieved by integration of the proposed Solar PV, evaluated as a function of the Energy Performance Index (EPI) and Energy Generation Index (EGI). The designed nominal PV power of the proposed grid-connected plant is 5.6 MW, producing 7182 MWh annually, meeting the maximum residential energy demand in the studied academic campus in CoVID affected year.