BIPV solar market accelerates

CAMBRIDGE, USA: The BIPV solar sector is poised for rapid expansion after years of being confined to niche markets. Impelled by maturing energy-efficiency codes, lucrative feed-in tariffs and supply-side product development, BIPV players are experiencing demand for a new array of BIPV solar components, including shingles, curtain walls and flexible panels for roofs and windows.

GTM Research’s latest report, Building-Integrated Photovoltaics: An Emerging Market maps the global BIPV solar landscape from current and projected market opportunity to technology evolution, supplier portfolios and the sector’s innate design challenges. GTM Research’s report acts as a crucial guide through the levels of the expanding BIPV market structure.

For the BIPV industry, which to date has been specialized, there is a pressing need for broader understanding of its scaling opportunity. The technology’s development, which has historically been spearheaded in European countries such as France and Germany where bankable feed-in tariffs have spurred initial BIPV build-out, is beginning to push globally. This push is exemplified by the commissioning of a 6.68 MW BIPV project, the world’s largest, in China in July 2010.

“The BIPV solar market’s grasp is finally meeting its reach thanks to both significant cost reductions over the past two years and product development that is enabling seamless integration of PV into the building envelope,” said Philip Drachman, a solar PV industry expert and the report’s author at GTM Research.

According to GTM Research, the installed capacity of PV on the whole is forecasted to reach more than 20 GW globally by 2013 (equating to roughly $60 billion in revenue), and the cost of PV panels is projected to fall to $1.20/W by that same date.

This sustained boost for the overall PV industry will have an enormous spillover effect on the commercial opportunity for BIPV as engineering, construction and design companies avail themselves of PV’s economic viability in the face of mounting energy efficiency demands.