Semitransparent Building-Integrated Photovoltaic: Review on Energy Performance, Challenges, and Future Potential

Buildings consume large amounts of energy, and their transformation from energy users to producers has attracted increasing interest in the quest to help optimize the energy share, increasing energy efficiency and environmental protection. The use of energy-efficient materials is among the proposed approaches to increase the building’s energy balance, thus increasing the performance of building facades. Semitransparent building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), being one of the technologies with the potential to increase a building’s energy efficiency, is considered as a feasible method for renewable power generation to help buildings meet their own load, thus serving dual purposes. Semitransparent BIPV integration into buildings not only displaces conventional building facade materials but also simultaneously generates energy while retaining traditional functional roles. The awareness in improving building energy efficiency has increased as well as the awareness in promoting the use of clean or renewable energy technologies. In this study, semitransparent BIPV technology is reviewed in terms of energy generation, challenges, and ways to address limitations which can be used as a reference for the BIPV stakeholders.