BIPV: A new form of photovoltaics ready to take off

BIPV has become a more competitive photovoltaic building solution in the era of parity. Driven by the "dual carbon" goals, the construction industry has an urgent need for transformation, and policy support is expected to increase. It may usher in explosive growth during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and the potential market size may reach hundreds of billions. The product and service market is still in its infancy, with opportunities and challenges coexisting. Leading photovoltaic and construction companies are exploring development paths, and the trend of cross-industry cooperation is gradually becoming clear.

Highly integrated BIPV has opened up new scenarios for photovoltaic building applications.

Photovoltaic building integration (Building integrated photovoltaic is an application form of distributed photovoltaic power generation system, which realizes the organic combination of photovoltaic power generation products and buildings, and has both power generation functions and building material properties. It provides solutions to a series of problems existing in traditional rooftop photovoltaic systems.

Photovoltaic marketization and building energy conservation, BIPV has a promising future under the dual drive.

Globally, BIPV is still in its infancy, with an installed capacity of about 1GW in 2020, accounting for about 1% of the world's new photovoltaic installed capacity. The early development of BIPV mainly relied on policy support, and with the continuous improvement of economic efficiency, the dependence on policy is also weakening. It is expected to usher in development in the era of photovoltaic parity. As an important path for the construction industry to achieve the "dual carbon" goals, photovoltaic buildings continue to receive policy support and are expected to accelerate during the "14th Five-Year Plan". International Photovoltaic Exhibition Based on the calculation of building area, we estimate that the domestic BIPV market size may reach 100 billion yuan by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", with broad development prospects.

Development path exploration period, opportunities and challenges coexist.

The product and service integration link in the downstream of the BIPV industry chain is in the early stages of development, and the pattern is not yet determined, attracting players from the photovoltaic and construction industries to join the game. Although the standard system is constantly improving with the efforts of many parties, there are still many difficulties in its implementation and promotion: 1) Difficulties in industrial integration, and buildings and photovoltaics are separated from each other. 2) No maintenance is carried out during operation, which cannot meet the needs of maintenance and upgrading. 3) The entire project cycle involves multiple stakeholders, and the division of responsibilities and benefits is unclear, and a mature business model needs to be explored. With the introduction of policies and the active exploration of all parties, the above problems are expected to be gradually resolved. We expect that 2022 will be a year for the accelerated implementation of BIPV industry policies and projects. In the "1+N" policy system of two carbons, BIPF is one of the effective solutions to achieve building energy conservation. In the development of the market, all parties are actively promoting the implementation of large-scale projects.

Multi-link joint development, leading the first-mover advantage.

From the experience of existing projects, participants in all aspects of BIPV are expected to open up market breakthroughs, among which component companies and building materials companies are the fastest. At the same time, based on the dual attributes of BIPV "photovoltaic + construction", the joint development model of photovoltaic companies and construction companies came into being. Through the strong combination, the first-mover advantage is obvious. Compared with conventional photovoltaic systems, BIPV has more diversified component products, better packaging materials, thinner glass, low-voltage current solutions, etc. The combination of photovoltaic products and buildings requires stronger structural components, better waterproof materials, etc. The development of the photovoltaic industry will bring major changes to the industrial chain.