Process Development and Material Evaluation of Photovoltaic Aluminum Facade Element for BIPV Application

The integration of photovoltaic solutions directly into building facades is a key strategy to achieve the European goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The widespread adoption of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) can increase energy security, diversify the energy mix and create new green jobs. By seamlessly integrating renewable energy generation into our cities, BIPV will become a cornerstone of a sustainable future for Europe. It offers aesthetic and functional benefits, such as providing shade, reducing heat gain and improving the overall performance of the building envelope. To achieve these goals, the building and construction sector needs to be supported in integrating photovoltaic technologies into its production and value chains. The initial results of the AluPV project show how PV production processes and material combinations can be adapted to realize PV-integrated aluminum facades as buildingintegrated photovoltaic elements. A main objective is to adapt the manufacturing process to be suitable for newly designed photovoltaic modules, both in terms of electrical adaptation due to different dimensions and architectural constraints and in terms of mechanical structures due to direct integration into Al facade elements. Therefore, suitable material combinations and process parameters were investigated, focusing on the reduction of mechanical stress and the use of cost-effective standard PV production equipment. Delamination and module bending caused by different thermal expansions during production could be avoided by intelligent pressure distribution. In this article, we will successfully demonstrate our findings using commercially available aluminum facade elements as backside for the integration of a solar cell string. It could be shown that standard industrial laminating equipment is suitable for costefficient production and fast implementation of the prototype into the production line. The use of lead-free electrically conductive adhesives (ECA) offered advantages in terms of sustainability and stability for the future use of highly efficient solar cell types. Electroluminescence (EL) images confirm that the solar cell strings have no cell fractures and magnetic field imaging (MFI) proof that the facade module is free of electrical defects. In summary, numerous challenges related to manufacturing and material selection were overcome and the prototype showed promising results. The research results contribute to the further development of building-integrated photovoltaics and show the potential for cost-efficient photovoltaic systems.