BIPV VS BAPV

BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) is working as part of the building structure. They serve dual purposes as power generator and building materials. BAPV (Building Applied Photovoltaics) is PV added to existing roof as additional systems. BAPV only serves as power generator, the building needs to be intact before adding PV system ontop.

BIPV system is very commonly used on industrial rooftop, like corrugated sheet rooftop, sandwich panel rooftop, Zn-Al alloy plates, etc, and can also be used on old rooftop with waterproof design to increase the lifespan of existing rooftop without spending extra cost for renovation.

Why BIPV Roofing

Installation Capacity: normally for 10000sqm rooftop, it can be installed with 1.0-1.2MW BAPV system, but wiht BIPV System could be installed around 1.5MW, 20% higher than BAPV in capacity, which means 20% higher power production within limited area

Bearing Capability: the owner or investor might worry about whole rooftop strcuture weight bearing, but with our full aluminum BIPV mounting bearing capacity is lees than 0.2KN/sqm, but regular BAPV is around 0.3KN/M2, it is more friendly to the under structures like steel structure, beams and poles.

Lifetime Forecast : Even though the initial investment of waterproof BIPV roofting is a little bit expensive than regular BAPV,  but when consider metal sheet roof normally need to be replaced every 10 years, but solar system could work more than 30 years, so you have to considering the cost for roof replacement, with waterproofed BIPV roofing, it extend your roof metal plate lifespan to more than 20 years, to reduce your future roof replacement cost and inconvinience.

BIPV systems should be approached to where energy conscious design techniques have been employed, and equipment and systems have been carefully selected and specified. They should be viewed in terms of life-cycle cost, and not just initial, first-cost because the overall cost may be reduced by the avoided costs of the building materials and labor they replace. Design considerations for BIPV systems must include the building's use and electrical loads, its location and orientation, the appropriate building and safety codes, and the relevant utility issues and costs.

Roof owners or investors can choose the BIPV system to be simple on-grid solar system or Hybrid PV system with battery storage according to power consumption situation, system budget, etc. On-grid solar system would simply using on-grid inverter to convert the DC power from solar panel to AC power for local consumption or feed the power to the local grid network, hybrid PV system with battery can store the power inside lithium battery to have more options on ecomonically using the power to reduce total power costs or to be independent on power supply.