Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window

system applied in office building
Hyo Mun Lee a, Jong Ho Yoon a,⇑, Seung Chul Kim a, U. Cheul Shin b
a
Department of Architecture Engineering, Hanbat National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Architecture Engineering, Daejeon University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The purposes of this study are to analyze the power efficiency of BIPV system under actual operating con-
Received 31 January 2016 dition and to reveal the factors of performance decrease through annual monitoring of the south-facing
Received in revised form 20 July 2016 vertical BIPV window system (the capacity of 10.6 kWp) whose performance was affected by partial
Accepted 30 July 2016
shading.
Available online xxxx
The study first investigated the monthly PR of each inverter to verify what caused the decrease in
power performance by analyzing PR variation. Then, the shading analysis was performed using a simu-
Keywords:
lation to analyze the capture loss of measured power performance and ultimately to find out the effect
Building integrated photovoltaic system
a-Si thin film solar cell
by partial shading components such as small overhang louvers of each floor, obstructions of adjacent
Transparent BIPV window building, and nearby hillock.
Partial shading The one-year measurement of the power performance showed that the annual average reference yield
Performance ratio (PR) was 2.15 h/day and the final yield was 1.52 h/day; moreover, it was analyzed that the annual average
Capture loss capture loss was 0.49 h/day and the system loss was 0.14 h/day. Monthly average reference yield in sum-
mer (between April and August) showed only 1.28 h/day which was 54% lower than the other seasons
with average 2.77 h/day. The annual average of PR was 0.69 (the monthly maximum of 0.77 and mini-
mum of 0.58); the average PR in the summer with low reference yield was 0.64, while the average PR
for other seasons was 0.73. Whereas monthly variation of LS (system loss) did not show big difference
of under 9%, monthly LC (capture loss) highly varied with fluctuation. These primarily arise from the
effect of the partial shading and vertically installed angle of south-facing BIPV modules.
The BIPV system consisted of four arrays and installed on the same south façade. However, the power
performance analysis per array showed that each array had different performances. The arrays located
above the facade had the highest PR, from 0.74, 0.75, 0.66, and 0.62 respectively in order. In addition,
LS and LC analysis of each array showed that there was performance difference mainly by LC, due to
the influence of an adjacent building located in the south.
The analysis using the simulation showed the adjacent building did not cast any shading but affected
on decrease in diffuse solar radiation whose amount was depending on the array location. When it comes
to the lowest array, nearly 7% of annual insolation was blocked by front building. The shading analysis,
furthermore, revealed that the overhang louvers caused a partial shading problem in spite of short extru-
sion of 40 mm depth all through the year, and particularly, showed a big effect during summer because of
high solar altitude. The extruded louvers caused decrease in 4.5% of average insolation loss over the year.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction electrical load matching. In non-residential buildings, since the

New and renewable energy systems in the zero energy building
are regarded as the final stage of a technical application to manage
residual load, and these play an important role in thermal and
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jhyoon@hanbat.ac.kr (J.H. Yoon).
electric power consumption accounts for a big part of total energy
consumption, there still exist a difficulty in reducing energy by
energy conservation and energy efficient technologies. Thus, the
new and renewable energy systems are getting more desirable in
the non-residential building, particularly in view of electricity
generation.
Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) systems, which also
serves as building envelope material itself, can be a leading

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
0038-092X/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
2 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Nomenclature
PV photovoltaic
BIPV building integrated photovoltaic
STC Standard Test Condition
PR performance ratio
POA plane of array
IAM incident angle modifier
Yr reference yield
HA;d daily global irradiation in POA
GI total irradiation, in POA
LS system loss
sr time interval
technology in terms of managing the argument of cost and effi-
ciency issues. Recently, numerous market researches forecasted
the rapid expansion of BIPV and PV market. The world PV market
is expected to grow total global installed solar capacity from
229 GW in 2015 to 600 GW in 2020 (Solar Power Energy, 2016).
The Installed capacity of BIPV was 0.3 GW in 2012 and the market
expects to expend a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
18.70% per year, which will result in the capacity of 1.2 GW in
2019 (Transparency Market Research, 2016). Although current
market share of BIPV is only 1.2% in solar energy market, it is
expected to go up to 9.0% in 2017 (Philip and Kerry-Ann, 2012).
Meanwhile, the size of BIPV market in South Korea is still small
at the moment, which is between 3 MW and 5 MW. However,
according to the recent research, the size of BIPV market is
expected to highly increase in the year 2017, up to 100 MW (SNE
Research, 2012).
The regulation for obliging newly constructed public buildings
to apply certain proportion of new and renewable energy system
took effect from 2004, and consequently many BIPV buildings are
being supplied to the public in South Korea. Different from PV
Power plants, most of BIPV modules are applied to a building
envelope such as roof, wall and windows. Therefore, variables such
as installation angle, shading and solar cell temperature become
key factors limiting power efficiency. Over the past 10 years of
its early stage of application, BIPV system required a great deal
of work to establish guidelines for the BIPV design and construc-
tion (German Solar Energy Society, 2005).
In recent years, many theoretical and experimental studies have
been conducted to determine how to maximize the benefits from
the BIPV systems in terms of PV power generation, payback time
and thermos-physical properties for the reduction of cooling load
in the buildings (Li et al., 2009; Mercaldo et al., 2009; Sun et al.,
2012; Lu et al., 2010; Zogou et al., 2011; Han et al., 2010;
Baetens et al., 2012; Tiwari et al., 2011; Sadineni et al., 2012).
In addition, in order to maximize the benefits, not only the effi-
cient design, installation and construction of the BIPV system is
important, but also the verification to ensure the power generation
with maximum efficiency in operation is significant. These are
especially necessary for BIPV systems whose power generation
efficiency is affected by many factors. To sum up, investigation of
actual power yield of BIPV systems in various installations are
needed to maximize benefits.
The previous experimental study on operational power perfor-
mance focuses on analyzing annual power yield and PR by collect-
ing the long-term monitoring data of BIPV system installed on
external wall or rooftop (Eke et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2014; Essah
et al., 2015; Sanchez et al., 2015; Wittkopf et al., 2012). Further-
more, an experimental study on temperature, shading effect, and
solar incidence angle have been carried out, which are the ele-
ments influencing the performance of BIPV system (Maturi et al.,
Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
YA array yield
EA;d daily net energy from array
PO nominal power at STC
PL load power
Yf final yield
EL;d daily net energy from load
gLOAD load efficiency
LC capture loss
2014; Yoon et al., 2011; Masa-Bote et al., 2014; Eke et al., 2015;
Drift et al., 2012; Ding et al., 2015). The main purpose of this
research is to investigate the power efficiency of BIPV system
under actual operation and to determine the factors of perfor-
mance decrease. The investigation was carried out by measuring
annual electricity generation of the BIPV systems, installed in office
building as a south-faced vertical curtain wall and affected by par-
tial shading.
2. Methodology
BIPV is a concept to economically increase the energy efficiency
of buildings not only by replacing existing construction material
but also by generating electricity with PV module. This system is
usually installed on the external surface of building unlike general
stand-alone PV system or PV plants that only aims to produce elec-
tricity. Therefore, BIPV system has a high possibility of efficiency
decline due to the factors such as the shading effect by installation
angle and surrounding obstructions and the temperature increase
of PV module. The efficiency decline is more so for BIPV module
installed on the vertical wall.
Accordingly, this research investigated the power generation
and performance degradation of BIPV system, which was installed
to replace curtain wall of an office building. Using the measured
data, this research analyzed the power generation of the BIPV sys-
tem and the performance of each array.
To do so, the research selected factors that can cause perfor-
mance decline by investing surrounding environmental conditions,
and calculated valid insolation that reached the array by simula-
tion. Finally, the research analyzed the decline of power generation
by calculating the PR of BIPV system through estimation of valid
insolation. The PR, which is defined by the ratio between the refer-
ence yields on STC (Standard Test Condition) and the final yield
during actual operation, can be differentiated into subcategory of
system losses and capture losses. Transformation loss in the inver-
ter is a major reason of system losses. In addition, other diverse
reasons are: thermal capture loss of the module in the operation
temperature, wiring, string diode, low insolation loss, partial shad-
ing loss, dust and containments loss, snowing loss, irregular insola-
tion condition, solar cell mismatch, MPPT failures loss, inefficient
system configuration and system failures account for capture
losses. This study referred to the IEC guideline 61724 (IEC, 1988)
to calculate power yield performance using measured power yield
data (see Fig. 1).

Reference yield (Yr)
P 
HA;d day GI
Yr ¼ ¼ sr  ½h=d ð1Þ
GI;ref GI;ref
 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 3

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of power loss factors in BIPV system.

Array yield (YA) of south facade BIPV system is 10.56 kWp and each array has
P 
2.64 kWp of capacity with 55.85 m2 of PV module area (see
EA;d day P L
YA ¼ ¼ sr  ½h=d ð2Þ Table 1). The specification of each BIPV module and inverter are
PO PO shown in Tables 2 and 3 respectively. Fig. 4 shows the array and

Final yield (Yf) inverter configuration of whole BIPV system.
P 
Meanwhile, the influential elements that can give a partial
EL;d day P L
Yf ¼ ¼ ¼ Y A  gLOAD ½h=d ð3Þ shading effect around the south facade BIPV system were: an adja-
PO PO cent building with a nearly similar building height located about

Capture loss (LC) 8 m away from the south facade of the building; the low hillock
LC ¼ Y r  Y A ½h=d ð4Þ located in the east side; and 40 mm extruded louvers above each
BIPV module. Fig. 5 represents the adjacent building and the

System loss (LS) louvers.
LS ¼ Y A  Y f ½h=d ð5Þ

Performance ratio (PR) 4. Measured power generation of BIPV system
Yf
PR ¼ ½ ð6Þ Fig. 6 compares monthly vertical irradiation from Korea Meteo-
Yr
rological Administration (KMA) in Daegu and from the BIPV site.
Since local KMA measures only global horizontal irradiance, the
3. Overview of BIPV window system vertical irradiation was calculated using Trnsys. The results
showed that the local irradiation form KAM was higher than the
The building for the investigation was a five-story office build- measurement from BIPV site and difference rate was between
ing in Daegu, South Korea, that was built in September 2011. The 8.95% and 34.91%. The difference was the biggest in winter,
BIPV system applied to the south and east facade of building as ver- between November and February, which was average difference
tical curtain wall, and this research focused only on the BIPV sys- rate of 22.53%. The discrepancy of measured irradiation between
tem applied on the south facade. Fig. 2 is an exterior view seen KMA and BIPV site was mainly due to different measurement loca-
from the southeast side of building, while Fig. 3 is the view of tion and the effect of surrounding environments such as the adja-
installed BIPV system seen inside. As shown in Fig. 2, when the cent building and hillock.
facade of each floor was divided into 4 sections (Fancoil area In order to investigate the operational power performance of
+ Vision area + Daylighting area + Spandrel area), typical tinted BIPV system, this study utilized measured data for a year (from
(blue color) double glazing window systems only applied to the Sep 2012 to Aug 2013). Fig. 7 illustrates daily average power gen-
vision area and transparent BIPV window systems applied to the eration and conversion efficiency of a power conditioning system
other three remaining areas. The type of transparent BIPV module (PCS). The AC power generation in March and October was
was a-Si thin film solar cell that has 10% transmittance of visual 24.91 kW h/day and 26.64 kW h/day respectively with high insola-
light. The installed BIPV window was a double glazing window tion on the vertically installed BIPV system. In contrast, since inso-
consisting of 10 mm a-Si BIPV module glass + 12 mm Air gap lation was low on the BIPV system in Jun and July, the AC power
+ 6 mm clear glass. generation was 7.29 kW h/day and 6.97 kW h/day respectively;
Total 240 BIPV modules applied to south facade with four arrays the daily average AC power generation for the year was
and inverters. The size of unit BIPV module is 0.95 m  0.98 m. 16.08 kW h/day. Conversion efficiency of PCS was between
Each array consists of five serial and twelve parallels. Total capacity 87.08% (in July) and 93.07% (in January), and annual average of

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
4 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 2. External view of the BIPV system in the office building.

Fig. 3. Internal view of the BIPV window system.

Table 1 Table 2
Description of BIPV window system. Specification of a-Si BIPV module.

Location [latitude/longitude] Daegu [35.1/128.37] Electrical data (STC)

Tilt angle Vertical (90°) Maximum power (Pmax) 44 W
PV orientation Due south Open circuit voltage 91.8 V
PV module type a-Si thin film (10% Transmittance) Short circuit current 0.97 A
Install capacity (south) 10.6 kWp Voltage at Pmax (Vmpp) 59.6 V
Current at Pmax (Impp) 0.74 A
Module efficiency 6.3%
Temperature coefficients
PCS was 90.96%. The results show that both conversion efficiency Power 0.35%/°C
of PCS and power generation were high in winter. Open circuit voltage 0.39%/°C
Fig. 8 shows the results of the monthly final yield, capture loss Short circuit current 0.056%/°C

(LC), and system loss (LS) of BIPV System, and Fig. 9 shows monthly
PRs that were calculated at a ratio of final yield to reference yield.
The results showed that the annual average reference yield was
2.15 h/day and the final yield was 1.52 h/day; meanwhile, the
annual average capture loss was 0.49 h/day and the system loss
was 0.14 h/day. Monthly average reference yield in summer
(between April and August) was only 1.28 h/day, which was 54%
lower than other season with average 2.77 h/day.
Next, the annual average of PR was 0.69 (the maximum of 0.77
and the minimum of 0.58). The average PR in summer (between

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
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 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 5

Table 3 average was 0.80 for the system that was installed during the past
Specification of inverter. few years and had improved performance (Norman et al., 2014).
Input data When it comes to PR in previous researches, the majority of
Maximum PV power 3300 Wp the results were from the cases such as power plant, PV installa-
Operating PV voltage range 190 Voc  600 Voc tion with optimized angle, and a few examples of BIPV applied on
MPPT voltage range 170 Voc  500 Voc
Max PV current 16 A
rooftop, etc. Especially, there are very few examples of detailed
PR analysis of BIPV system installed on the outer wall or rooftop
Output data
Maximum continuous power 3000 W
as a building window system. According to the IEA research
Maximum efficiency 94.5% describing the power performance of 14 examples applied on
Euro efficiency 93.0% facade and 12 examples applied on slope roof, the PR range of
Operating line frequency 59.3 Hz facade was between 0.61 and 0.84 (the average 0.72) and the
Nominal line voltage 220 V, 1Phase
PR range of slope roof was between 0.67 and 0.86 (the average
Line current (max)/line >0.99
0.74).
Fig. 10 is the diagram of monthly PR change for each array. PR
analysis result of each array showed that array-3 and array-4 con-
April and August) with low reference yield was 0.64 and the aver- nected to the array at the upper part of building facade had similar
age PR for the other seasons was 0.73. The annual average of LC annual monthly PR variation. Annual average PR of array-3 and
was 0.23 (the maximum of 0.34 and the minimum of 0.17), and array-4 outstandingly remained 0.74, although the PR value
the annual average of LS was 0.06 (the maximum of 0.09 and the dropped below 0.7 from May to July when incidence angle is high.
minimum of 0.05). Whereas monthly variation of LS did not show This value is not that different from the average PR value of instal-
big difference under 9% in Fig. 7, monthly LC highly varied with lation examples of general PV system and shows normal power
fluctuation. It may arise primarily from the effect of partial shading performance level.
and incidence angle of vertically installed south-facing BIPV Whereas array-1 and array-2 connected to the array at the
modules. lower part of building facade, affected by the shading effect of
Meanwhile, according to the previous researches (Ayompe south adjacent obstruction building and eastern hillock just beside
et al., 2011; Chokmaviroj et al., 2006; Congedo et al., 2013; the building, showed dramatic operational degradation compared
Ghiani et al., 2013; Khatib et al., 2013; Kymakis et al., 2009; to array-3 and array-4. Annual average PR of the array-1 which
Micheli et al., 2014; Mondol et al., 2006; Okello et al., 2015; locates the lowest was 0.62, showing 16%lower operational degra-
Padmavathi et al., 2013; Sharma et al., 2013; Sidrach et al., 1998; dation than that of the upper one (array-4). Even though the PR
Ueda et al., 2009), the PR range of general PV system from 2001 itself fluctuated especially during the summer season, the differ-
to 2014 was between 0.67 and 0.87 (the average 0.77) depending ence gap of monthly average PRs between array-1 and array- 4
on the installation type and condition, type of solar cell, and showed almost same
installed year and so on. According to a latest research from IEA Fig. 11 illustrates the monthly variations of each array’s LC (cap-
(IEA, 2016), the PR range was between 0.60 and 0.95 and the ture loss) and LS (system loss). Speaking of PR performance by its

Fig. 4. Array and inverter configuration of the BIPV window system.

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6 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 5. View of partial shading components around the BIPV system.

Fig. 6. Irradiation analysis of KMA Data and Monitoring Data.

Fig. 7. Monthly power generation and PCS efficiency.

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 7

Fig. 8. Monthly power yields and losses of the BIPV window system.

Fig. 9. Monthly PR variation of the BIPV window system.

Fig. 10. Monthly PR variation of 4 each array.

LS and LC, system loss with the inverter remained steadily below
0.1, and the four inverters showed only minor difference. However,
capture loss almost followed the same variation of the previous PR
value, which concludes that the difference in performance effi-
ciency mostly results from the capture loss. Seasonal variation of
the capture loss tends to show the greatest loss in the summer
around in July, and the loss also increased in winter. To sum up,
this study estimated that the loss was due to the shading by lou-
vers with high incidence angle in summer and the shade of adja-
cent obstruction buildings in winter.

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Fig. 11. Monthly LC and LS variation of 4 each array.

5. Analysis of partial shading effect
To disaggregate the complex effect of shading components such
as small overhang louvers of each floor and obstructions of adja-
cent building or hillock beside the building in BIPV site, shading
analysis result using Autodesk Ecotect Analysis (Autodesk, 2016)
and Solmetric SunEye 210 (Solmetric Corporation, 2016) measur-
ing Equipment is used to estimate the geometric effect of the cap-
ture loss in measured power performance.
5.1. Front adjacent building
In order to find out the influence of shading effect by the 40 mm
extruded louvers and adjacent building, this research compared
and analyzed the insolation reaching each array surface using Eco-
tectÒ. To do so, both the array-1 located in the lowest side of the
facade and the array-4 located in the uppermost side of the facade
were evaluated as shown in Fig. 12. The BIPV module surface of
each array was split into fine grid having 0.45 m distance, and
the insolation decrease by shading effect was assessed through
the calculation of annual cumulative direct and diffuse solar radi-
ation that reach each subdivision.
The influence of the obstruction with and without the adjacent
building is shown in Fig. 13. Reduction ratio of irradiation varied
over the year and the ratio was dependent on installed height of
the arrays. Array-1 and Array-4 showed decrease in irradiation of
3% and 0.34% respectively for the year, which indicated Array-1
lost approximately 10 times higher irradiation than Array-4. Based
on Array-1, irradiation loss by the adjacent building was between
1.56% (in July) and 5.5% (in January).
The variation of irradiation affected by the adjacent building
was divided into direct and diffuse components. There is no shad-
ing effect of direct solar radiation by adjacent building during the
whole year, but the shading effect of diffuse solar radiation by
adjacent building differs from the location of BIPV arrays. Array-1
(the lowest side of BIPV) shows 6.89% loss of annual surface

Fig. 12. Model view of Ecotect for shading analysis of adjacent building.

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
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 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 9

Fig. 13. Partial shading effect of Total irradiation by the adjacent building.

insolation by front building, whereas array-4(the uppermost side)
shows just 0.81% loss. The monthly decrease rate of diffuse solar
radiation by the adjacent building was uniform all year round.
Fig. 14 shows the calculated diffuse solar radiation that reaches
the south facade surface in cases with and without the southern
adjacent building. Array-1, located in the lowest side, showed the
highest diffuse radiation decrease of 6.89% and Array-4, located
in the highest side, showed the lowest decrease of 0.81%. Array-2
and Array-3 showed diffuse radiation decrease of 4.73% and
2.62% respectively. To sum up, amount of diffuse radiation influ-
enced by the adjacent building decrease when PV array is placed
lower side. This decrease in diffuse radiation of each array was
due to different sky component of each array by the adjacent build-
ing. In addition, it turned out that the different PR of each array in
Section 4 resulted from the building.
5.2. Extruded louvers
Fig. 15 shows monthly cumulative solar radiation on the south
facade surface in cases with and without of 40 mm extruded lou-
vers. Annual average insolation of 3.54 kW h/m2.month is blocked
by the 40 mm extruded louvers during every month. The insolation
of 4.8 kW h/m2.month and 4.3 kW h/m2.month are blocked in May
and June respectively that has high solar altitude. Finally, 4.1% of
total insolation is blocked by the 40 mm extruded louvers over
the year.
Fig. 16 illustrated influences of the partial shading by 40 mm
louvers to direct and diffuse solar radiation. While 3.2% of diffuse
radiation is blocked evenly every month over the year, direct solar
radiation shows decreases due to the louvers by 20.1% in June,
13.3% in May, and 16.7% in July respectively that have high solar

Fig. 14. Partial shading effect of diffuse irradiation by the adjacent building.

Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
10 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 15. Partial shading effect by extruded louvers.

Fig. 16. Partial shading effect of direct and diffuse irradiation by the 40 mm extruded louvers.

altitude angle. As shown in the previous analysis result, the louver
or overhang located next above the BIPV module has a consider-
able influence on the power generation despite its short extruded
length, as solar altitude is high during summer especially on a
lower latitude location.
5.3. Adjacent hillock
The influence of hillock adjacent to the eastern side was ana-
lyzed using instrument as it was difficult to carry out accurate
modeling through the simulation program. Measurement was
done in the central point of the entire module connected to
array-1. The equipment used can measure the time that cast sha-
dow from any object by projecting the surrounding to the sunpath
diagram through a fisheye lens. The shading effect by hillock
located at the eastern side of the building was evaluated through
the geometric shading analysis using sun-path diagram. The
monthly calculated solar access was shown in Table 4. Solar access
decreased by maximum of 4% between October and March that
have low solar altitude, and did not change between April and
September.
According to the analysis with sun-path diagram, hillock
blocked some irradiation before 8 AM between October and March.
Thus, the study investigated proportion of cumulative irradiation
before 8 AM to total cumulative irradiation in each month based
on the measured insolation; the analysis result is shown in Table 5.
The average rate of irradiation loss before 8 AM between October
and March was 0.19% in comparison to annual average, demon-
strating that the adjacent hillock affected the total irradiation but
did not influence on overall power generation.
5.4. IAM (Incidence Angle Modifier)
The incidence angle is a measure of deviation from the direct
solar radiation to the PV panel surface. The incidence angle is
directly involved in the determination of the radiation incident
on the surface of the PV device. Therefore, the incidence angle
affects the amount of solar radiation transmitted through the

Table 4
Calculated monthly solar access of adjacent hillock.

% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Avr
Solar access 96 97 99 100 100 100 100 100 100 98 96 96 98

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Table 5
Monthly blocked irradiation percentage of adjacent hillock.
1 2 3 4
2
Measured Irradiation (kW h/m ) 1889.5 2717.3 4002.3 1652.7
Blocked irradiation (kW h/m2) 0.00 0.55 29.13 0.00.
Irradiation reduction percentage (%) 0.00 0.02 0.73 0.00.
protective cover and converted to electricity by the cell. In general,
the higher incidence angle, the more amount of reflected radiation
from the cover. Significant effects of inclination occur at incidence
angles greater than 65 degree (De Soto et al., 2006). Accordingly,
the monthly irradiation loss was calculated considering the trans-
mittance by incidence angle.
The study first calculated variations of the transmittance to
direct solar radiation, and then applied the IAM (De Soto et al.,
2006). To do so, the measured global solar radiation was separated
into direct and diffuse solar radiation. In order to calculate loss
rate, the hourly solar radiation loss and its rate for a year
(8760 h) were calculated and finally the monthly rate of solar radi-
ation loss was calculated, which is illustrated in Fig. 17.
The annual average irradiation decreased by 5.68% due to
change of incidence angle, and the highest monthly irradiation loss
was about 8.17% in May. It was assumed that the highest irradia-
tion loss occur in June due to the highest solar altitude resulting
in high IAM, but in fact this occurs in May. Since June and July
are a rainy season in Korea, the proportion of direct solar radiation
was lower than the other months.
6. Conclusion
This research performed an analysis on the performance of BIPV
System equipped with real-time measurement system, and ana-
lyzed the influence of factors on performance decline. The mea-
sured power generation performance of BIPV system showed
annual average PR of 0.69, capture loss of 0.23, and system loss
of 0.66. When it comes to the performance of each array, the PR
of array-3 and array-4 installed on the upper part of south facade
surface was 0.75 and 0.74 respectively, and array-1 and array-2
located in the lower part was 0.62 and 0.66 respectively. This indi-
cated that arrays performance varies depending on the installed
height in spite of the same direction.
Fig. 17. Variation of monthly measured irradiation and IAM corrected irradiation.
Please cite this article in press as: Lee, H.M., et al. Operational power performance of south-facing vertical BIPV window system applied in office building.
Sol. Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2016.07.056
11
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1430.6 926.6 1221.1 1126.1 2671.0 4206.7 2438.0 2606.8
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 54.39 5.80 0.00
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.29 0.24 0.00
The decline of BIPV system performance was investigated con-
sidering the surrounding environmental elements: 40 mm
extruded louver, southern adjacent building, and eastern adjacent
hillock. It was calculated that an annual average of 4.1% of irradia-
tion was blocked by the 40 mm louvers. The monthly diffuse solar
radiation loss was about 3.2% over the year, but the direct solar
radiation showed increase by 20.1% in summer with high solar alti-
tude. In addition, each array showed variation in irradiation loss by
the adjacent building in the south.
Reduction ratio of irradiation varied over the year and the ratio
was dependent on installed height of the arrays. Array-1 and
Array-4 showed decrease in irradiation of 3% and 0.34% respec-
tively for the year, which indicated Array-1 lost approximately
10 times higher irradiation than Array-4. The influence of the adja-
cent building was investigated on direct and diffuse radiation com-
ponents. While direct radiation loss was not observed, diffuse
radiation decreased by the adjacent building. Reduction ratio of
diffuse radiation was constant over the year, but was different
depending on installed height: 6.86% in Array-1, 4.73% in Array-
2, 2.62% in Array-3, and 0.81% in Array-4. This decrease in diffuse
radiation of each array was due to different sky component of each
array by the adjacent building. In addition, it turned out that the
different PR of each array resulted from the building. The investiga-
tion of shading by hillock showed trivial influence between Oct.
and Mar. and thus hillock affected little or no influence on the BIPV
performance.
The irradiation decrease by the incidence angle showed an
annual average loss of 5.68% and the maximum monthly loss
occurred not in June that has high solar altitude but in May with
the monthly loss of 8.17%; this is because proportion of the direct
solar radiation decreases in June due to rainy season.
In general, most BIPV window systems are vertically installed
and thus there is a high possibility of shading effect due to the
adjacent buildings, vegetation, and structures in the downtown
area. As demonstrated by this research, louver with a short
12 H.M. Lee et al. / Solar Energy xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
extrusion length of 40 mm affects a power performance decline.
Therefore, it is important to correctly identify and respond to the
external environmental conditions to minimize irradiation loss
and secure the performance of BIPV system in the design stage.
In addition, it is important to prevent the shading effect on array
even by a small design element, and it is necessary to make an
effort to increase the irradiation by improving the building facade
design in regions where high incidence angle change occur over
the year like South Korea. Finally, when using excellent perfor-
mance PV module with diffuse solar radiation, the performance
loss by adjacent building must be considered in the design stage.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Tech-
nology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade,
Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No.
2015301013032).
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