Strategy towards solar architecture by photovoltaic for building integration

ABSTRACT: In a time when climate change has got so much attention on account of fossil-driven fuel overuse, recognition and implementation of solar-driven energies play a crucial role in human being’s future career. The traditional system of heating, lighting, cooling uses huge amount of fossil energy and produces harmful pollution to the environment. Existing buildings and constructions have a great responsibility in using, undamaging and wasting. In recent decades, the focus has been on the replacement of fossil-driven source of energy with the solar-driven one, which is free, endless and free of harm to human life and also environment. Although the use of solar energy as photovoltaic and solar thermal collectors is increasing, but the demand, particularly in building area, is less and therefore it cannot easily replace the fossil source. One of reasons why the employment of solar facilities is not considerably welcomed is the lack of architectural consideration in implementing solar facilities rather than people’s unfamiliarity with the solar technology. There is a need of design and invention of new sophisticated models to create a harmony between integrating solar facilities and the structure of existing buildings. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the plausible ways of blending solar-oriented technologies into both existing buildings and the new constructed ones. The study has focused on the importance of architectural considerations as well as the energy production issues. The purpose is to recognize designing possibilities with respect to the implementation of solar-oriented energies into building construction while considering new and updated models and approaches. Since aesthetics issue is an outstanding point to the general public, the study has also highlighted the importance of external appearance and beauty of solar facilities’ integration in the buildings. Consequently, photovoltaic systems and solar thermal collectors can be designed and implemented in such a way to fulfill the necessities of aesthetic concerns. The idea of a movement toward the phenomenon of passive houses in which the production and emission of energy reaches its lowest amount will lead to invention of buildings integrated with solar-driven facilities as a new source of energy which is free of pollution, has a very low cost and includes aesthetic criterion . Regardless of all benefits that solar system provides, its shortcomings regarding integration process of design, color, and framework of existing buildings might violate the ultimate architectural quality of the construction. Due to the technological advancements in the area of solar systems, market provides the costumers various sorts of solar facilities. The use of solar systems will not end in beneficial outcomes unless they are implemented in such a way to promote and fulfill the requirements of architectural concerns in one way or another. In this case, even if there be high qualified photovoltaic and solar thermal collector systems in the market, these systems will not be welcomed by customers or public if they do not consider the integration of aesthetic models. Whereas the technological developments have found their way and the new and updated facilities are introduced, the process of implementation and integration of these systems have not been deeply considered yet. The ideas of making buildings more energy efficient and using the highest amount of renewable energy are remarkable factors for wasting of energy would reach its lowest amount and the greenhouse effect would reduce. Based on these issues, the integration process of solar-driven energies into the buildings has become more crucial than before. The integration has not only led to have purer energy but also it has caused replacement of the systems in the previous traditional buildings. Regarding the above mentioned issues, both the economic and architectural considerations of integration would therefore be met. To put it briefly, this study is an attempt to investigate the plausible models of integration of photovoltaic and solar thermal collector systems while putting special emphasis on the aesthetic aspects of integration. Therefore, integration possibilities of both systems are compared and contrasted in order to find their potential benefits and losses. Keywords: Solar Architecture, Building Integration, Aesthetic Aspect of Integration, Solar Thermal Collector, Photovoltaicvi. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………