PV T Roadmap

PVT ROADMAP
A European guide for the development and market introduction of PV-Thermal technology
The 6th Framework Programme
PVT ROADMAP
A European guide for the development and market introduction of PV-Thermal technology
This roadmap was developed as part of the EU-supported Coordination Action PV-Catapult
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Purchasing value 25,Printed copies of this roadmap can be ordered at egon@ecn.nl The PVT-roadmap can be downloaded without charge at www.pvtforum.org
This publication presents a roadmap for the marketing and R&D of PVT systems for the short, medium and long term, in order to enlarge the long term market penetration of PVT products. The roadmap is part of the project PV Catapult, supported by the European Union under contract no 502775 (SES6). More information on the project can be found at www.pvtforum.org
Editors
Herbert Zondag, Marco Bakker and Wim van Helden. Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 ZG Petten, the Netherlands
Authors
Pascal Affolter, Solstis, Sebeillon 9b, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland Wolfgang Eisenmann Institut fr Solarenergieforschung Hameln, Am Ohrberg 1, D-31860 Emmerthal, Germany Hubert Fechner Arsenal Research, Faradaygasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria Matthias Rommel Fraunhofer Institut fr Solare Energiesysteme, Heidenhofstrasse 2, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany Anton Schaap Ecofys, Kanaalweg 16g, 3503 RK Utrecht, The Netherlands Henrik Srensen Esbensen Rdgivende Ingenirer, Carl JacobsensVej 25D, DK 2500 Valby, Denmark Yiannis Tripanagnostopoulos, University of Patras, Rio, 26500 Patras, Greece Herbert Zondag Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 ZG Petten, the Netherlands
PVT concepts: (a) PVT-liquid (b) PVT-air
(a)
(b)
Summary
Summary
What is PVT? PVT is a solar energy device using PV as a thermal absorber. By using the heat generated in the PV, a PVT device generates not only electrical, but also thermal energy. Side-by-side systems are outside of the scope of this roadmap. The PVT Forum project Research on PVT is scattered over many (often short-term) projects involving many different actors, but a clear long-term vision was lacking. It was considered very useful to bring some of the key players together to reach consensus on the long-term outlook for PVT development and to identify the main bottlenecks. This work has been carried out within the PVT Forum project, which is part of the EU-supported project PV-Catapult. The aim of PVT Forum is to lay the foundations for a large-scale introduction of PhotovoltaicThermal (PVT) technology in Europe by means of this roadmap. The aim of this roadmap The aim of the roadmap is to identify promising markets for PVT, and to identify the economical, policy, legislative and technical bottlenecks. In addition, the roadmap wants to inform the parties in the market on PVT. The roadmap is targeted at a broad range of professionals, including policy makers, solar manufacturers, installers and researchers. Chapter 1 - Introduction The present PVT market is very small, but nevertheless, PVT has the potential of significant market expansion in the near future. Presently, two commercial PVT air collector manufacturers exist, but the number of PV-air collectors installed is very small. For PVT liquid collectors, present commercial activities are even more limited. It is the aim of this roadmap to boost the attention for PVT, in order to change this situation. The potential market expansion should be seen in the light of the EU targets for 2010, that are set at 100 million m2 for solar thermal (corresponding to 70 GWp thermal) and 3 GWp for PV. The markets for both solar thermal and PV are growing rapidly. PV-Thermal has the potential to experience a similar growth and the technical potential of the technique is large, especially if the market for domestic applications can be reached. Chapter 2 - Overview of modules and systems PVT devices can be very different in design, ranging from PVT domestic hot water systems to ventilated PV facades and actively cooled PV concentrators. Some of these have a wide application while others have a more limited market. In addition, the various PVT concepts differ in the effort that is required to solve the associated commercial issues, building integration issues and technical issues.
module cost liquid PVT modules glazed liquid PVT modules unglazed air PVT modules glazed air PVT modules unglazed ventilated PV facades PVT concentrators + + ++ + ++ ++ + reliability market size ++ + building integration + + + + + system economics + + + + + + + + + aesthetics
Chapter 3 - Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D Many manufacturers have participated in the development, production and marketing of PVT systems and products. In general, the number of commercial systems is very small and long-term experiences with operation of the systems are scarce.
liquid PVT modules The collector types of PVT systems are typically developed from the basis of an existing solar thermal collector, which then is equipped with solar cells on the absorber surface. Two manufacturers presently have commercial modules. air PVT modules PVT air modules can be manufactured more easily, but the market is smaller. Three manufacturers presently produce PVT air collectors on a commercial basis. ventilated PV facades PVT systems belonging to the group of Ventilated PV with Heat Recovery typically have emerged from solutions for specific buildings. However, standardised systems are becoming available. PVT concentrators Three commercial systems are available.
Chapter 4 - Potential markets for PVT Largely based on the ESTIF report 'Sun in action - a solar thermal strategy for Europe', an overall segmentation of the PVT market has been developed. The largest market potential is found in the residential sector, now representing 90% of the market. Presently, this market consists
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largely of domestic hot water systems for singlefamily houses, but for the future, a growing market share is expected for solar space heating and for systems for multifamily buildings. While the largest potential is seen for domestic hot water systems, possible niche markets are collective tap water systems, pool heating for (public) swimming pools and autonomous systems, while for the future space heating and solar cooling may become a niche market in the commercial sector. Chapter 5 - Drivers and barriers in the market The market can be analyzed in terms of drivers and barriers for the different actors (decision makers, decision influencers, suppliers). In this roadmap, an inventory has been made for the most promising markets for PVT: In the short term, specific actors in the building market may already be motivated to invest in PVT (e.g. real estate developers, housing associations, municipalities, energy companies). Multi-family buildings (especially if owned by a housing association) may be an important early market, due to the limited roof area available, which promotes area efficient renewable energy applications. Furthermore, interesting niche markets may exist in autonomous applications and (public) pool heating. In the medium and long term, the most promising application for PVT systems seems to be domestic water heating and space heating. For space heating, it is especially true for advanced houses wanting to cover a large part of the energy needs with solar energy. Combination of heat pump and PVT could be a promising concept. In the long term, professional application (industry, agriculture) and applications such as solar cooling will become interesting for PVT. Chapter 6 - Comparing systems and market demands Bottlenecks for the marketing of PVT exist in different areas. Technical issues, integration & standardisation issues and general issues such as subsidies and training issues can be distinguished. As main bottlenecks for PVT are identified: unclear economic viability, lack of warranties and certification, insufficient legal embedding, lack of training for installers, lack of public awareness and lack of standardization. It is important that the reliability and life time of PVT laminates is thoroughly assessed, which requires further re6
search and dedicated test procedures. Also the PVT system economics need to be clearer. Chapter 7 - Identification of key developments The following key developments are identified, and development schemes for the short, medium and long term are presented: Training and education on all levels, from policy makers to customers. Integration issues such as plug and play modules, the development of optimized PVT systems and design tools for these. Standardization for both performance and reliability aspects Aesthetic issues such as an inventory of the aesthetical demands of the different actors, as well as PVT module designs that show flexibility in color and shape, as well as appealing design Optimized financing schemes for the various actors Clear and consistent subsidy schemes for the various actors Technical issues such as stagnation resistance, optimization of optical parameters and heat transfer and optimization of PV temperature coefficient Chapter 8 - Conclusion First of all, it should be stated that PVT may be interesting for a large number of applications and market sectors. Customers of PVT products would include not only homeowners but also other groups such as real estate developers, housing associations, energy companies, municipalities and owners of public pools, sports facilities and hotels. Important sales arguments for PVT are only one supplier responsible for all eye-catching high profile technique provides a green and high-tech image reduced area and installation costs as compared to side-by-side systems renewable energy targets are reached more efficiently However, for large scale market penetration of PVT, a number of actions have to be undertaken by the various actors involved. An action plan is presented below, indicating benefits and challenges for the main actors involved.
Summary
Manufacturers Benefits of PVT new and/or enlarged markets Challenges how can the production technologies of PV and solar thermal be integrated cost-effectively? how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into heating and electrical systems be accomplished? how can PVT modules be produced with sufficient variety in colour and shape? how can PVT be promoted effectively? Policy makers Benefits of PVT Renewable energy targets reached more efficiently and at an earlier time Challenges which market support mechanisms are most effective for PVT? how should PVT be included in the new energy efficient building regulations? how can research, development and demonstration of PVT be supported most effectively? R&D and Test institutes Benefits of PVT development requires innovative technological solutions Challenges what should the performance and reliability standards for PVT look like? which field tests should be carried out to support warranties? which technological solutions can be found to increase the optical and thermal efficiency of PVT which technological solutions can be found to increase the long-term reliability of PVT? Architects Benefits of PVT new ways to integrate renewables into buildings less aesthetic problems with integration into the building envelope, since only one device needs to be integrated Challenges how can PVT (and other solar technologies) become an integral part of the building design? which new building concepts are now possible because of PVT? Energy Consultancy and engineering companies Benefits of PVT innovative and high profile technology for demonstration projects Challenges what sort of design tools are needed by architects, installers and engineers? which new system concepts are now possible because of PVT? what are the best system configurations for given climates and applications? which market surveys are required to support the commercialisation of PVT? Building industry Benefits of PVT high profile green product that may be used to promote the sale of core products increased energy performance of buildings reduced payback time compared to PV and solar thermal side-by-side Challenges how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into the building construction be accomplished? how can prefab building elements be realised that facilitate installation of PVT? Installers Benefits of PVT reduced installation effort new or enlarged market Challenges how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into heating and electrical systems be accomplished? how can the three specialisms (roofing, heating and electrical installation) be combined? which targeted solar campaigns are necessary for PVT?
Photo: Grammer Solar
Table of contents
1. Introduction Project aim General introduction of PVT 2. Overview of modules and systems System overview Classification of thermal demand PVT system yield Module overview General module issues Liquid PVT collector Air PVT collector Ventilated PV with heat recovery PVT concentrator Autonomous developments in solar-thermal and PV Conclusion 3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D Principal products and systems on the market PVT Liquid collectors PVT Air collectors Ventilated PV with heat recovery PVT concentrators Present state of certification Present state of R&D PVT liquid collectors PVT air collectors Ventilated PV with heat recovery PVT concentrators Glazed/unglazed PVT Type of PV-absorber Conclusions 4. Potential markets for PVT Principal segmentation of present potential PVT market Market segmentation for present solar-thermal market Market segmentation for present PV market Changes in the market Trends in solar thermal Trends in PV Trends in the residential sector Market differentiation Solar thermal PV Subsidy schemes Competitors for PVT systems Conclusion 5. Drivers and barriers in the market Decision processes Actors and their drivers & barriers Decision makers Influencers 11 11 11 13 13 13 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 21 22 23 23 23 24 24 25 26 27 27 27 27 28 28 29 29 31 31 31 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 34 36 37 38 39 39 40 40 45
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Suppliers Conclusions 6. Comparing systems and market demands General bottlenecks Warranties Legal aspects Aesthetics Ease of handling Training and awareness Green image Grid connected applications Domestic market Tertiary market Off-grid applications Consumers Professional stand-alone Agricultural application Conclusion 7. Identification of key developments General issues Measuring techniques, standards and certification Financing issues Subsidy issues Awareness and training Legal aspects Technical issues Stagnation Thermal module efficiency Temperature dependence of solar cell performance Integration issues Aesthetics Development of plug-and-play modules Design Tools Combining PVT with PV or thermal collectors on a single roof or faade. Combining PVT with heat pumps Combining PVT with solar cooling 8. Conclusions Most promising system-market combinations Barriers to overcome Action plan References Glossary Overview PVT products IEA SHC task 35
47 48 51 51 51 51 52 53 53 54 54 55 57 60 61 62 62 62 63 63 63 64 65 66 66 67 67 68 69 70 70 70 71 71 72 73 75 75 76 77 79 83 84
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1. Introduction
1. Introduction
PVT roadmap
The aim of the roadmap is to identify promising markets for PVT, and to identify the economical, policy, legislative and technical bottlenecks. In addition, the roadmap wants to inform the parties in the market on PVT. It thereby targets a broad range of professionals, including policy makers, solar manufacturers, installers and researchers. This work has been carried out within the PVT forum project, which is part of the EUsupported project PV-Catapult. The aim of PVT Forum is to lay the foundations for a large-scale introduction of photovoltaic-Thermal (PVT) technology in Europe by means of this roadmap. In order to construct the roadmap, a two-step approach was taken. As a first step, PVT experts, PV and solar thermal industries and other stakeholders were brought together in two workshops, connected to the PVSEC 2004 in Paris and the Eurosun conference 2004 in Freiburg, to identify drivers and barriers for PVT. The results of these two workshops, that were presented in two workshop reports, were used as input for the roadmap presented here. As a second step, the PVT roadmap was written, formulating the necessary actions that should be taken on short, medium and long term in order to enlarge the market for PVT products. The chapters of the roadmap are written and reviewed by the various participants in PVT Forum. These participants have been selected for this project on the basis of their contribution to PVT development over the last years.
Figure 1. Artist impression of a glazed PVT-liquid collector, showing both PV cells and heat transfer system (source: IEA-PVPS Task 7 CD-ROM).
Figure 2. Practical examples of PVT liquid devices (left to right: PVT liquid module of PVTwins, concentrating modules of Vattenfall, unglazed module of ECN)
Photo: B. Karlsson
Figure 3. Practical examples of PVT air systems (left to right: PVT air modules of
Photo: Atlantis Energy
General introduction of PVT

PVT is defined in this roadmap as a device using PV as a thermal absorber. By using the heat generated in the PV, a PVT device generates not only electrical, but also thermal energy. Because of this scope, no attention will be paid to side-byside systems, in which PV is installed next to solar thermal in the same frame. PVT devices can be very different in design, ranging from PVT domestic hot water systems to ventilated PV facades and actively cooled PV concentrators. In order to indicate the range of devices classified as PVT, some pictures of PVT
Grammer Solar, ventilated PV facade Scheidegger building by Atlantis Energy, PV air roof ECN)
devices are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3. The markets for both solar thermal and PV are growing rapidly and have reached a very substantial size. For PV-Thermal a similar growth can be expected; the technical potential of the technique is large, especially if the market for domestic applications can be reached. Given the broad range of application for PVT, which is not only suitable for domestic hot water heating (glazed PVT collectors), but also for offices (ventilated PV for preheating ventilation air during winter and providing the driving force for
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1. Introduction
The large variation in PVT development originates due to several independent developments that all resulted in the idea of integrating PV and thermal into one module. The main developments were as follows:
1. Increasing the efficiency: The research on PVT started during the 1970's, with the focus on PVT collectors, with the main aim of increasing the energy efficiency. Domestic application was regarded as the main market. Initially the focus was on glazed collectors, both air type and liquid type, but soon the idea of an unglazed PVT collector combined with a heat pump also received attention.
2. Autonomous systems: Small air collectors for autonomous applications, in which the fan could be driven by PV, were developed for autonomous markets such as the ventilation of cottages. For this market, PV-air collectors with a little PV have been developed. Research was carried out on autonomous PVT liquid collectors for developing countries.
3. Cooling PV Research on concentrating PV was based on the idea of replacing expensive PV by cheap reflectors. A point of attention was the high temperature that could be reached by the cells. Therefore, cooling of the cells was necessary. By using active cooling the heat could be used as well. In the beginning of the 1990's, large PV facades started to receive attention and the issue of ventilating these in order to reduce the PV temperature, quickly lead to the idea that this heat could also be used for room heating.
natural ventilation during summer), the market for PVT might even be larger than the market for thermal collectors. However, the present PVT market is still very small. PVT air facades have only been applied in a few special projects, and only recently a first standardised product has been developed. Three commercial PVT air collector manufacturers exist, but, apart from the summer cottage market, the number of PVT air collectors installed is very small. With respect to PVT-liquid collectors, at present only two manufacturers of unglazed PVT collectors exist. Although several manufacturers have tried to commercialize glazed PVT-liquid collectors, a commercial product has only very recently become available. Finally, three commercial companies supply PVT concentrators. It is the aim of this roadmap to boost the attention for PVT, in order to change this situation. An overview of the roadmap is presented in Figure 4.
Figure 4. Roadmap chapter overview
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2. Overview of modules and systems

Many types of PVT devices exist, as was illustrated in chapter 1. In the present chapter, the aim is to define a number of PVT system classes and to give an indication of the thermal and electrical performance. First, an overview of PVT systems will be presented. Next the system efficiency will be elaborated. Finally, a short overview of points of attention on the module level will be given.
System overview
PVT is defined in this roadmap as a device using PV as a thermal absorber. By using the heat generated in the PV, a PVT device generates not only electrical, but also thermal energy. The electrical yield of the PVT can either be used directly or be supplied to the grid. Since storage is not required, it is straightforward to determine the annual electrical yield. For the annual thermal yield, the situation is different. The PVT device is part of a larger heat supply system containing other equipment, such as a thermal storage and piping. In addition, the user determines how much heat is used. The thermal efficiency of a PVT device and the average module temperature depend strongly on these effects. Therefore, the PVT systems overview presented here focuses on the thermal system. For the various PVT systems, the thermal yield and the electrical yield will both be discussed, including the effect of the thermal system on the electrical output. Classification of thermal demand Many applications exist for solar heat, ranging from domestic hot water and pool heating to agricultural applications like drying of crops or milk heating for calves. In principle, solar collector systems have a design as shown in Figure 5. Key elements are the collector, the storage (size ranges from zero for direct use systems to a few m3 for weekly storage system) and the auxiliary heater to add as a backup in case of insufficient solar supply. Various ways exist to classify solar thermal systems. Here, the choice is made to categorize them with respect to thermal demand, which has two dimensions: process temperature required and
amount of storage required. The subdivision of the thermal demand is presented in Figure 6. In this figure, typical examples of solar thermal systems in these categories are given. It should be emphasized here that the demand by the end user is categorized here, and not the temperature level that is provided by the solar collector system. This means that the indicated temperature level is the temperature level that is produced by the solar collector and the additional heater (e.g. a conventional gas heater or a heat pump) jointly. Considering Figure 6, it should be kept in mind that some demands will normally be combined into one system (e.g. domestic heating and hot water).
Figure 5. Principal scheme of PVT system, including PVT module, storage and auxiliary heater.
Each storage level required brings its own techniques and problems. Direct application of solar heat may require a good control of the flow, to be able to adapt to variations in irradiance. At the other hand, seasonal storage may require techniques such as the application of a heat pump and ground storage or (in the future) thermochemical storage. Similarly, each temperature level brings its own techniques and problems, related to the improved insulation of the PVT module and the associated issues of increased stagnation temperature and reliability. It should be kept in mind that PVT is not suitable (yet) for the very high temperature range, due to the large thermal losses at high temperatures and the wish to restrict the PV temperature to an acceptable level.
Figure 6. Classification of PVT systems according to thermal demand
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PVT system yield To indicate the yield of a PVT system is not straightforward. Basically three problems exist: 1. The yield depends on the ambient conditions, especially the irradiation. These conditions vary strongly with latitude. This implies that e.g. the yield of a collector in Greece will be substantially higher than the yield of the same collector in the Netherlands. In addition, the amount of irradiance that is received by the collector displays a seasonal variation, which also depends on the lattitude. These effects are indicated in Table 1. 2. The collector produces both electrical and thermal output. Therefore, one either has to talk about these two yields separately, or one should choose a way to combine both yields into one quantity. There are various methods to combine the value of electricity and heat (Coventry and Lovegrove, 2003): Calculate the total energy by simple addition Calculate the primary energy (Fossil fuel energy required to produce the amount of useful thermal and electrical energy. This differs from the above due to plant and heater efficiencies) Calculate the saved cost from the tariffs for heating energy and electrical energy Calculate the exergy For this report, we prefer to calculate the total yield of the PVT in terms of primary energy, since this provides the fairest way to calculate the fossil fuel saved. The choice is made to assume a thermal conversion factor of 1 and an electrical conversion factor of 2, corresponding to a heater efficiency of 100% and power plant electricity generation efficiency of 40%. 3. The electrical yield of the PVT can either be used directly or be supplied to the grid. Since storage is not required, it is straightforward to determine the annual electrical yield. For the annual thermal yield, the situation is difannual irradiation horizontal kWh/m2 2101 1567 1113 1046 983 ratio irradiation winter / summer 0.41 0.31 0.16 0.12 0.06 ratio irradiation faade/roof 35 0.57 0.62 0.67 0.70 0.75
ferent. Unlike the electrical output, the thermal output depends strongly on the thermal system design and the amount of heat that is extracted by the user. In the calculations presented in this chapter, it is assumed that the load is typical for a certain application and that the system dimensioning is optimised for the load. Because of these effects, it is difficult to evaluate and compare the energy yield per m2 for different PVT systems. However, for a given type of system under a given orientation in a given climate, under the condition that the system dimensioning has been carried out properly, a good estimate can be made. This estimate is presented in Table 2. In this table, various systems are presented with typical values for PVT, electrical yield and thermal yield. The energy yield is estimated for both the Dutch and the Greek climate. It should be kept in mind that the systems given in Table 2 cannot be compared directly with each other, as they are quite different concerning system design requirements (PVT area required, size of storage tank, etc.), collector type, temperature level and system costs. Nevertheless, the table is useful to illustrate some general trends in PVT systems yield. From Table 2, several trends can be identified: The effect of climate is large. The amount of primary energy saved per unit of collector area is about twice as high in Greece as in the Netherlands. The seasonal variation in the demand may reduce the annual thermal yield considerably. The effect of temperature level on electrical PVT performance is relatively small. The effect of temperature level on thermal output is substantial, although this trend is reduced due to the corresponding change in PVT design (over a certain temperature level, insulating covers are used, which increase the collector performance but also the costs). Applications with a heat pump will generally have zero or negative electrical output due to the consumption of the heat pump. Facade integration reduces both the electrical yield and the thermal yield. Although the electrical yield is typically 40% of the thermal yield, in terms of primary energy yield the contributions are almost equal. With a few exceptions, the thermal yield per
Table 1. Climatic parameters for various countries (source: Meteonorm). Winter is defined as November to January, while summer is defined as May to July.
location latitude
Jerusalem Athens Vienna Amsterdam Stockholm
31 38 48 52 59
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annual PVT yield electrical kWh/ m2 Dutch Greek 90 130 annual PVT yield thermal kWh/ m2 Dutch 3050 2040 (season only) 200300 150200 200300 200300 Greek 250300 50100 (season only) 550600 45055500600 500600 Annual primary energy kWh/ m2 Dutch Greek 255- 575 275 625 250265 310350 additional saving on ventilation may be possible during summer
Table 2. Examples of systems, with typical yield

remarks
Markets offices residences offices
application solar cooling (70-90C) room heating + natural ventilation through ventilated unglazed PV facade (offices) (25-50C) hot water (50-70C) room heating + hot water (50-70C) room heating + hot water combined with heat pump with ground source (50-70C) room heating + hot water combined with heat pump with energy roof and ice storage (50-70C)
(assuming the Dutch and the Greek climate). For the electrical performance, crystalline silicon cells are assumed.
80
110
residences, apartment buildings, hospitals etc
100
140
450550 400450 200300 150250
850950 800900 500600 500600 including the heat production and electrical consumption of the heat pump including the heat production and electrical consumption of the heat pump
100
140
-20
pool heating
pool heating outdoor (25-50C)
110
165
150200250 300 (summer (winter only) only) 300400 300400 100150 (season only) 600700 400500 350450 (season only)
425525
810910
pool heating indoor (25-50C) industrial agricultural car wash (25-50C) crop drying (50-70C)
100
150
550650 550650 350400
9001000 9001000 700750
100 100
140 140
m2 is somewhat lower in a PVT system than in a conventional solar thermal system, while the electrical yield is slightly lower than for a conventional PV module. However, in the case of PVT, both yields are produced by the same area! Compared to side-by-side systems, the combined thermal and electrical yield of a PVT system is larger than the combined thermal and electrical yield of a side-byside system of the same size, allowing for a smaller area and a reduction in installation costs. In terms of energy, it is clear that for most applications the thermal yield is substantially higher than the electrical yield, which shows that a conventional PV laminate generates a large amount of untapped heat. The harvesting of this heat has the potential to reduce both the financial and the energy payback time of the PV considerably, which further illustrates the potential of PVT.
Module overview
The thermal demand that was specified in Figure 6 can be covered by several types of PVT collectors. PVT modules can be characterized along several dimensions, such as the type of PV used, whether the collector is glazed or unglazed, what collector fluid is used (water/glycol or air), whether concentration is used and what type of module design was used. For practical reasons, in this roadmap, the PVT device classification is used as presented along the y-axis in Table 3, where the effects of glazing and type of PV will be presented as 'general module issues'. A relation exists between the type of module required and the types of demand as defined in Figure 6. However, the relation is not a one-toone. An overview is presented in Table 4.
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In separate paragraphs below, the effect of PV type and glazing are indicated and for the PVT collector classes as shown in Table 3 some topics of attention are given. General module issues Glazing PVT collectors may have a glass cover over the absorber to reduce the thermal losses. If such a cover is present, the collector is referred to as "glazed", otherwise as "unglazed". The terms "glazed" or "unglazed" therefore do not refer to the glass substrate that may be part of the PVT absorber! Glazed collectors have smaller thermal losses, especially at higher collector fluid temperatures. For medium to high temperature applications, this results in a much higher annual thermal yield. Glazed collectors result in high stagnation temperatures that may be critical for certain types of PV encapsulant (risk of yellowing and delamination). The glazing makes the module more sensitive to hot spots. Bypass diodes may get overheated due to the additional insulation. Reflection losses at the glazing reduce electrical performance. Increased temperature levels lower the electrical yield.
PVT liquid collector
unglazed module (ECN)
glazed module (PVTwins)
PVT air collector
unglazed module (Grammer Solar)
glazed module (Aidt Milj)
Ventilated PV with heat recovery
facade system (TFM)
roof system (TFM)
PVT concentrator
stationary module (Vattenfall)

Table 3. PVT collector classification.
tracking module (ANU)
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Type of demand high temperature water high temperature air low temperature water low temperature air Recommended type of PVT collector Use glazed liquid collector, glazed air collector with heat exchanger or concentrator. Also an unglazed collector is possible as source for a heat pump. Use glazed air collector or unglazed collector/ventilated PV as source for a heat pump. If only summer demand use unglazed liquid collector, if also winter demand use glazed liquid collector or unglazed collector as source for a heat pump. If only summer demand or high irradiation in winter use unglazed air collector or ventilated PV. If also winter demand and low irradiation in winter, use glazed air collector or unglazed collector as source for a heat pump.
Table 4. Relation between type of collector and type of demand.
In the discussion whether the collector should be glazed or not, it is important to find a good balance between the increased thermal yield on one hand, and the reduction in electrical yield and the issues related to possible degradation on the other hand. Type of PV Several commercial PV technologies exist. Crystalline silicon has by far the largest market share of all PV technologies, as shown in Figure 7. Commercial modules have a good electrical efficiency of 10-17% for mono crystalline silicon modules and 11-15% for multi crystalline silicon modules, as shown in Table 5. A good electrical efficiency is important, since for many applications, PVT produces too much heat relative to electrical energy. Amorphous silicon has a significant market share, but much smaller than c-Si. It has a relatively low electrical efficiency of 4-6% for single junction and 5-7% for triple junction material (Table 5). It can be obtained in flexible laminates, increasing the design options. The price per square meter for a-Si is lower than for c-Si. However, this is compensated for by the lower efficiency of a-Si; the price per Wp for a-Si is similar to the price for c-Si.
PVT stagnation temperature PV laminates are designed for direct insolation and the temperatures that are reached at direct insolation. In a glazed solar thermal collector a transparent cover is placed in front of the absorber. In this way much higher temperatures can be reached. Whereas a PV module can reach about 90 C under direct insolation in hot climates, the absorber of a thermal collector can reach temperatures of up to 220 C, with a state of the art spectrally selective coating. The construction of the thermal collector is able to withstand these high temperatures. The absorber is fully welded. Soldered (lead/tin) absorbers are getting rare, because of the temperature limitation. The backside insulation is also able to withstand this temperature. It is mostly glass wool with a special (non evaporative) binder. In general a PVT absorber has a higher solar reflectance than a conventional thermal absorber and also a higher infrared emission. This means that the PVT absorber will get less hot than a state of the art thermal absorber with selective coating. A PVT absorber using standard PV cells will reach temperatures of up to about 150 C. Of course, the temperature can be raised by increasing the solar absorption and decreasing the infrared emission. In this way the collector efficiency can be improved, but also the specifications of the bonding technique become more severe. The solar cells can withstand temperatures around 220 C without any problem. In this temperature range no diffusion takes place. But most encapsulation materials used for PV-modules cannot withstand these high thermal collector temperatures. Ethylene vinyl-acetate for example oxidises faster at high temperatures and solar irradiation (UV-radiation) than at lower temperatures. The maximum temperature for most polymeric encapsulation materials is around 100 C. Also the durability of the interconnections of the solar cells will be lower at such high temperatures, even though melting point of the used solder is much higher (around 250 C), because of the additional thermal strain and the fact that the higher temperature increases possible corrosion effects (making the solder more brittle).
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Other PV techniques such as CIS and CdTe are upcoming but have presently a very small market share and have therefore not yet been used in PVT. talline silicon cells, so the losses may be only about half the losses compared to crystalline silicon cells. However, all cells have negative temperature coefficients which means that the situation is in principle still the same (less energy produced at higher temperatures). However, the effect of the power dependence on the temperature should not be overestimated. During operation (enough daylight) a c-Si PV module has an average temperature over the year of about 30-40 oC (depending on the amount of ventilation of the module), whereas a glazed PVT collector may have an average temperature between 30 oC and 50 oC (depending on the solar fraction). So we can estimate that the electrical power loss will generally be less than about 10% of the total electrical yield. Liquid PVT collector The liquid PVT collectors are similar to conventional flat plate liquid collectors; an absorber with a serpentine tube or a series of parallel risers is applied, onto which PV has been laminated or glued.
Photo: PVTWINS
Figure 7. Market share of PV technologies 2002 (figure from PV-NET roadmap, data from P.D. Maycock)
Table 5. Module efficiencies of different PV types. Source: Market survey solar modules 2005 (Photon International, February 2005)
type of cell multicrystalline Si monocrystalline Si HIT cells ribbon & EFG cells a-Si (single junction) a-Si (triple junction) CIS CdTe
On the system level, only the effects of climate, orientation and temperature affect the electrical performance of a given PVT system. The most important effects are those of total annual irradiation - which is much larger for Southern countries as illustrated by Table 1 - and the effect of orientation, which is a function of latitude. This leads e.g. to the observation that, from an efficiency point of view, facade integration is more appropriate for Northern countries (as shown previously in Table 1). Of secondary importance is the effect of temperature. It is different for different types of PV. Table 6 summarises the temperature coefficients of different PV techniques available on the market. The table shows that for most thin film cells the temperature coefficients is smaller than for crysproducer highest performance modules Sharp Suntechnics Sanyo Electric Titan Energy Mitsubishi Sunset Wrth Solar First Solar corresponding cell manufacturer Sharp SunPower Sanyo Electric RWE Schott Mitsubishi Heavy United Solar Wrth Solar First Solar
range commercial module efficiencies 11-15% 10-17% 16-17% 12-13% 4-6% 5-7% 9-11% 6-9%
Table 6. Power temperature coefficients of different PV techniques.

producer (reference) Mitsubishi Heavy RWE Schott Solar Uni-Solar Kaneka Wrth First Solar type of cell crystalline Si a-Si a-Si a-Si a-Si/c-Si hybrid CIS CdTe temperature coefficient (based on power) -0.4%/K to -0.5%/K -0.2%/K -0.2%/K -0.21%/K -0.23%/K -0.36%/K -0.25%/K
Commercial issues Hot water has a wide application, is easy to store and can be used all year long. The flat plate collector is very well suited to produce hot water, which is reflected in the fact that of the installed solar thermal collector area worldwide, flat plate collectors (glazed and unglazed) make up for over 75% (see Figure 8). The collector types of PVT systems are typically developed from the basis of an existing solar thermal collector, which is equipped with PV on the absorber surface. The cost of the PVT system can be assumed to be similar to the cost of the solar thermal system plus the cost of the PV laminate (including installation), minus the cost of saved materials through integrated production/ installation and reduced installation costs.
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Building integration issues Building integration is applied successfully for solar thermal collectors, and PVT collectors can be integrated in a similar way. Technical issues Special integrated PVT absorbers are required, for which the thermal resistance between PV and collector fluid should be sufficiently small (especially for unglazed PVT). Leakage or freezing may occur in case of faulty design. Commercial issues A problem for air collectors is the limited application for hot air, especially during the summer when most heat is available. This is reflected in the installed area of air collectors, that is about 1,5% of the total installed solar collector area (see Figure 8). In general, air collectors are mostly applied if the users have a demand for hot air, like in air heating systems and drying of agricultural products. Air heating systems are mainly designed to directly use the air for space heating. However, the opportunity for this application depends directly on the market share of air heating systems, which is low in most countries. A niche market is given by preheating of ventilation air for large volume buildings (stores, sport halls, schools, manufacturing halls,...) where temperatures in the range of 15 to 25C are desirable. With the very same air systems, hot water preparation is often possible as well through an air/ water heat exchanger, which is done during the summer season in order to increase the overall performance of the system. Nevertheless, it is difficult for these systems to compete with a liquid collector, because of the cost and the limited efficiency of an air/water heat exchanger. Other applications for hot air may be solar cooling and drying processes. Building integration issues On the module level, a problem is the high air volume flow required to obtain a good thermal efficiency, and the corresponding items of large diameter tubing, noise and fan losses. The large tubing required may cause problems, especially in retrofitting. Technical issues The application of air as a heat transport medium has some advantages but also some big disadvantages in comparison with water. To start with the advantages: No freezing and no boiling of the collector fluid. No damage if leakages occur. The disadvantages are however rather severe: Low heat capacity and low heat conductivity, which result in a low heat transfer. Low density, which results in a high volume transfer. High heat losses through air leakage
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Figure 8. Installed solar thermal collector area wordwide (end 2001) in GWp and m2 collector area (data from Weiss (2004), keynote lecture Eurosun conference)
Air PVT collector The PVT air collectors are similar to a conventional underflow air collector with a PV laminate functioning as the top cover of the air channel. PVT air collectors have the important advantage over PVT liquid collectors that conventional PV modules can be used, which reduces the module costs relative to PVT liquid modules. However, this benefit on module level may be compensated by increased costs and lower annual yields on systems level. PVT air collectors can either be glazed or unglazed.

For direct heating of living rooms, heating air to more than 60C is not recommended. Air with a temperature of more than 60C is starting to burn dust particles, which can lead to health problems in open systems. Also particles of the materials in the PVT collector may be gassing out at high temperatures. Ventilated PV with heat recovery In conventional PV facades or PV roofs, an air gap is often present at the rear in order to allow the air to cool the PV by means of natural convection (ventilated PV). If this heat can be recovered from the PV and be used in the building, the PV functions as a PVT collector. Basically, the entire PVT-module infrastructure is already available in normal building integrated PV.
Mataro library - TFM
that can be reached by the ventilated PV is not sufficient for direct use in such systems, due to the large heat losses and the faade orientation. Therefore, ventilated PVT facades are combined with roof or faade integrated conventional collectors to boost the temperature to the required level for this application. Commercial issues Since PV facades are already well established and are largely identical to PVT facades, and since PV facades replace expensive facade cladding materials, it is expected that the costs on module level will be low compared to all other applications. However, on system level the situation may be different; since PV facades are often unglazed, the temperature levels that can be reached are limited, and the costs of the additional infrastructure required may outweigh the benefits of the use of this heat, so low cost systems are mandatory. A difference between ventilated PV with heat recovery and PVT collectors, is the fact that this system is typically designed for a specific building and is not manufactured as a standardised system. Due to the current strong link between this type of PVT and specific building projects, it is very difficult for a non-specialist architect to provide this option for a specific project. However, this situation may change since several institutes and manufactureres have made an effort to standardise these systems (e.g. Butera, 2005). The application for heating (e.g. preheated ventilation air) is limited to climates that have a substantial irradiation during the heating season, which excludes e.g. Northern Europe, although possibilities exist in countries such as the USA and Japan. On system level, the efficiency is low due to the seasonal character of the demand. This may be improved by extending the system to provide hot water or solar cooling during the summer, but this will strongly increase the system cost. Building integration issues At the module level, these PVT systems are highly suitable for building integration. However, using air systems for ventilating, heating and cooling of buildings generally needs large pipe installations and big volumes, because of the poor heat capacity of air. It can therefore mainly be used in new buildings, introducing air systems at a retrofitting process is very difficult. For that reason, only niche markets (sports halls, store-
Such PV facades, apart from providing electricity and heat, have additional benefits as well: A PV-facade may limit the thermal losses from the building to the ambient (especially those related to infiltration). In addition, the PV facade shields the building from the solar irradiance, thereby reducing the cooling load. This makes such facades especially useful for retrofitting badly insulated existing offices. Air collectors and PV-facades can use their buoyancy induced pressure difference to assist the ventilation, if there is no demand for the generated heat. Facade integration of PV has the cost incentive of substituting expensive facade cladding materials. Similar to PVT air collectors, a problem for ventilated PV is the limited application for hot air during the summer, when most heat is available. An interesting option is the application of the heat for solar cooling. However, the temperature level
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houses, production halls, assembly rooms, etc...) are equipped with solar air systems in significant numbers up to now. Technical issues Since the heat transfer from the PV to the airflow is generally not very good, the losses to the ambient are large and thermal efficiencies are generally in the range of 10% to 20% for a welldesigned system. Because of health reasons, direct introduction of the heated air into living rooms is not recommended. Fungi and bacteria in the duct systems cannot be avoided, as well as dust that will be blown into the living rooms. Although filters could clean the air, maintenance is difficult and the pressure drop and therefore the electrical power for ventilation will increase significantly. This is why indirect systems (hypocausts, double wall systems,...) are used for air heating systems in living rooms. However these systems are much more expensive. PVT concentrator By concentrating, a (large) part of the expensive PV area is replaced by cheap mirror area, which is a way to reduce the payback time. This argument is the driving force behind PV-concentrators. However, this leads to a substantial thermal energy generation in the solar cells, and if not removed, a very high operating temperature of the solar cells will be the consequence and the efficiency for solar cells will decrease substantially. Therefore, the PV needs to be cooled. If this is done by active means, a PVT concentrator results. Different types of concentrators exist, ranging from flat plate concepts with added reflectors to highly concentrating designs that strongly deviate from the flat-plate concept.
Photo: B. Karlsson
Commercial issues Concentration has the potential of reducing the cost, through replacement of expensive PV area by cheap mirror area. In addition, the PV efficiency increases due to the larger irradiance, which further reduces the payback time. However, up till now the market share for PV concentrators has been negligible, which is mainly due to the fact that these systems are rather bulky, disqualifying them for many PV applications. Building integration issues Large concentration ratios require tracking, which makes building integration impossible and strongly increases the maintenance costs. Furthermore, not all climates are suitable for high ratio concentration, depending on the amount of diffuse irradiation. This problem is less for low concentration ratios, since a stationary concentrator can be used, but also in that case the collector is thicker than a flat-plate collector and the surface uneven in appearance, since the reflectors are not in one plane with the PVT. Aesthetically the concentrating systems provide different reflections and optical effects, which are unusual to the built environment and which may prevent such systems from being placed visibly in the facade construction. The best option may be to install the concentrator on a horizontal roof (e.g. PVT systems with booster reflector in parallel rows). Technical issues The small cell area allows the use of more efficient and expensive PV material, such as cells specially designed for PVT performance. The combination of glazing and reflectors increases the stagnation temperature, which may lead to degradation of materials. For electrical performance, the uniformity of the irradiance may be compromised, increasing mismatch losses. However, this drawback might be overcome by using diffuse reflectors.
Autonomous developments in solar-thermal and PV

If we assume that PVT will use state of the art solar-thermal and PV technology, changes in these technologies might considerably influence the development of PVT:
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The PV price will strongly decrease. This would make installation costs more and more significant. Since PVT is a means to reduce installation costs, this development is promising for PVT. The price of solar thermal will decrease more slowly than the price of PV. This may mean that in time, the thermal system becomes the most expensive element of the PVT collector. This may shift the emphasis in module design more to thermal efficiency at the cost of PV efficiency. The market share of vacuum tube collectors is increasing. This is presently due to lowcost mass-scale production in China. The increase in market share will be reinforced due to an increased demand for space heating and solar cooling. Due to very high stagnation temperatures, these collectors are presently not suitable for PVT applications. If vacuum tubes would become the dominant market product, this may be problematic for PVT. However, it is expected that flat plate collectors will continue to keep a substantial share of the market (e.g. because of the fact that building integration is easier for flat plate collectors, with the additional benefit of providing insulation to the building). Some PVT systems also contain a heat pump. Future increased efficiency of the heat pump, together with a reduced sensitivity to high source temperature, will make heat pumps more suitable for combination with solar systems functioning as a source for the heat pump. In the long run, seasonal storage will become more efficient and compact, due to developments in thermo-chemical (TCM) storage. This will increase the potential for seasonal storage at the expense of additional costs and increased technical complexity. However, due to the costs, the storage capacity should be minimised, which can best be done by using highly efficient solar collectors (vacuum tubes) for loading, since this minimises the time span over which solar energy is not available. Since PVT is presently not suitable for vacuum tube application, such a development could be problematic. Nevertheless, this development would influence mainly the market for solar heating, while the large market for tap water heating will continue to be served by flat-plate collectors and PVT. It may be concluded that, although developments in PVT system components will influence PVT systems, PVT will mostly profit from these. The basic advantage will continue to lie in space reduction and cost reduction (especially if one considers the whole chain from manufacturing to marketing, logistics installation and maintenance). An exception is the potential future rising market share of vacuum collectors, a development that may be reinforced by the increasing share of solar heating, solar cooling and the development of TCM storage. This development may require dedicated high temperature PVT technologies, which still have to be developed. However, it is expected that flat plate collectors will play an important role for a long time to come.
Conclusion
A wide range of PVT systems and PVT modules exists. Some of these serve a wide range of applications while others have a more limited scope. In addition, the various PVT concepts differ in the effort that is required to solve the associated commercial issues, building integration issues and technical issues. Later chapters in this roadmap will present a priority ranking for the concepts to be developed and the issues to be addressed in RD&D, marketing and policy.
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3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

In this chapter the state of affairs of PVT Systems is analyzed from the point of view of the market as it was by 2004. For all of the principal types of PVT defined in chapter 2, commercial and near-commercial products can be found, although their number is small and long-term experiences with operation of the systems are scarce. Many manufacturers have participated in the development, production and marketing of various systems and products. The present chapter aims at presenting an overview of this work. However, there is no claim to completeness. is around 10%, depending on type of photovoltaic cells used. Examples of product developments and market attempts are: Millennium Electric commercially produces an unglazed PVT module. Millennium has taken over this production from Chromagen. PVTWINS is a spin-off from ECN, commercially producing glazed PVT collectors. This is a continuation of the work done by ECN with ZEN Solar and Shell Solar, who together developed the PVT system at Renewable Energy Systems in the UK (see www.beaufortcourt.com). Batec & Racell carried out a PVT development project during 1998-2001, together with Esbensen, the DTI and Novator. However, due to the collapse of the Danish market, Batec terminated its involvement. Racell continued its involvement in PVT development. Solon is developing an unglazed PVT module for commercial manufacturing. This is a continuation of the work previously carried out by Solarwerk on glazed PVT modules. Solarwatt carried out a development project on a PVT collector during 1996/1997. However, problems occurred with the electrical insulation and when the module failed the climate tests, the intended demonstration project at Malteser Krankenhaus in Kamenz was not carried out. Zenit manufactured a PVT prototype collector in 1997, but commercial manufacturing
Principal products and systems on the market

Based on the classification presented in the previous chapter, the principal products and systems on the market are split into the following groups: PVT Liquid collector PVT Air collector Ventilated PV with heat recovery PVT Concentrator PVT Liquid collectors Most PVT liquid collectors are developed based on a commercial solar thermal collector that has been modified to include PV in the surface of the absorber. The typical thermal performance is similar to the performance of a non-selective type of solar thermal absorber. The electrical efficiency
Figure 9. (a) Power roll by
(a)
(b)
(c)
Powerlight, (b) PVT module by PVTWINS, (c) PVT module by Millennium Electric, (d) PVT demonstration system by ECN, Shell Solar and ZEN Solar at RES (UK), (e) PVT collector by Solarwerk, (f) PVT collector
(d)
(e)
(f)
by Solarwatt.
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was not carried out. Sollektor manufactured a PVT collector during 1999-2000. A collector was installed and is still running, but commercial production was not started. Dunasolar manufactured a PVT liquid collector, but the development was ended when the factory was closed in 2005. SDA, Sunearth & Unisolar together carried out a PVT project under PV BONUS during 1997-2001, in which they tried to connect a Unisolar laminate to a Sunearth collector. Continuing problems with the flatness of the absorber and the differences in tolerances between PV and absorber technology stood in the way of successful production. Powerlight The company Powerlight carried out a PVT project under PV BONUS during 1997-2003, in which they developed a PVT consisting of a flexible Unisolar PV laminate laminated to a flexible EPDM absorber. However, delamination occurred and the decision was taken to postpone the commercial manufacturing. ICEC developed and tested a PVT liquid collector in 1999, but this collector is not yet commercially manufactured. PVT Air collectors Compared to the number of PVT Liquid Collector types, only a few PVT Air Collectors have been developed and introduced to the market. However, the level of commercialisation is much higher. Grammer Solar is commercially producing a PVT air collector, which has already been applied in a number of large demonstration projects. In addition, Grammer is producing an air collector with a small amount of PV integrated for autonomous cottage ventilation Conserval Engineering is producing a PVT air collector, in which PV laminates are connected on top of their perforated Solarwall modules. The focus is on PV cooling whereby the PV yield can be increased. A number of demonstration projects has been realised. In addition, also a solarwall air collector with a small amount of PV is produced for autonomous cottage ventilation. Aidt Milj also produces an air collector with a small amount of PV for autonomous cottage ventilation. Cythelia has developed three prototype PVT air collectors, but commercial production was not started. Ventilated PV with heat recovery The systems belonging to the group of Ventilated PV with Heat Recovery typically have emerged from solutions for specific buildings, where the primary focus has been building integration of PV and where the need for ventilation of the PV-systems in order to maximise the electrical yield has been combined with utilisation of this heat for preheating of ventilation air, space heating or similar.
Figure 10. (a) PVT air collector of Grammer Solar, (b) PVT collector of Aidt Milj, (c) Capthel collector of Cythelia (photo: Alain Ricaud), (d) PVT air collector of Conserval Engineering, (e) Twinsolar collector of Grammer Solar, (f) Autonomous Solarwall collector.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
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(e)
(f)
Figure 11. (a) Scheidegger building (Atlantis Energy), (b) Public library, Mataro (TFM), (c) Imagina PVT air
(a)
(b)
(c)
roof, Barcelona (TFM), (d) PVT air roof Centro Ricerche Fiat, Orbassano (Secco Sistemi), (e) PV air roof Aerni factory (Atlantis energy), (f) apartement building Lundebjerg (Cenergia, Photo Peder Vejsig Pedersen).
(d)
(e)
(f) PV solar cells. To avoid too high temperatures, cooling is required. If this is done by active means, a PVT concentrator results. A problem may be that the active cooling has to be fail proof. The first commercial PVT concentrators are already available. In the UK Heliodynamics has developed a commercially available PVT concentrator, based upon tracking technology. In Canada, the company Menova Engineering Inc. has developed a commercial PVT concentrator. Finally, in Sweden, the company Arontis Solar Solutions has started commercial production of PVT concentrators. In addition, the Swedish company Vattenfall Utveckling AB has developed the MaReCo PVT collector and in the spring of 2004 has carried out a demonstration project of 30 m of the MaReCo-hybrid in Hammarby Sjstad. However, the development at Vattenfall was ended and transferred to the company Priono AB, that is trying to commercialise the product.
Photo: Joe Coventry - ANU
Several projects have been carried out, such as the Aerni factory (1991, Atlantis energy), the Scheidegger building (1993, Atlantis energy), the Cottbus Umweltzentrum facade (1994), the Mataro public library (1997, TFM), the multifamily buildings at Skovlunde (Lundebjerg) and Copenhagen (Sundevedsgade) (2000, Cenergia), the Yellow House in lborg (2000, Esbensen Consulting), the eco-canteen of the Fiat research centre (2003, Secco Sistemi) and recently the roof of the Imagina studio in Barcelona (2004, TFM) and the professional training centre in Casargo (2005, Secco Sistemi). Some of these systems use the PVT system only for preheating of ventilation air (e.g. Imagina studios), while others boost the output temperature of the PVT system (e.g. by means of conventional solar collectors) to make it suitable for solar cooling (e.g. Mataro library). Attempts have been made to standardise the characterization and design of such systems, such as in the European supported project PV-HYBRIDPAS. The Italian company Secco Sistemi is working on a standardised system, together with the Polytechnical University of Milan. As a first application of their system, the CRF ECO-canteen was realised (Aste, 2004). PVT concentrators As described in chapter 2, the PVT concentrating systems have been developed, based on the idea of using relatively cheap concentrating devices to concentrate sunlight on relative expensive
In Australia, a 300 m2 demonstration project is carried out with the CHAPS PVT concentrator, a single axis tracking system with a concentration of 37, providing electricity and hot water
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Figure 12. (a) MaReCo PVT concentrator of Vattenfall, photo: Bjorn Karlsson, (b) PVT concentrator of Heliodynamics, (c) PVT concentrator of Solar Focus, (d) PVT concentrator of Arontis, (e) CHAPS PVT concentrator of the ANU, photo: Joe Coventry, (f) Power-Spar PVT concentrator of Menova Engineering, (g) PVT concentrator module of Sunwatt, photo: Richard Komp.
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g) Performance tests The electrical performance affects the thermal performance. Therefore, it should be clear whether the characterisation of a PVT module should be with or without production of electricity A PVT collector is more sensitive to spectral variations than a normal collector, resulting in problems with indoor measurements Reliability In glazed PVT collectors, the PV may be subject to substantially higher temperatures than are prescribed for thermal cycling in the PV standard IEC 61215. Due to the metal rear, short circuiting needs more attention. It should become clear whether the PV tests can be carried out on laminate level, or should be carried out on PVT module level The development of proper certification procedures for PVT would improve the competitive position of PVT-systems in the market. Therefore, new developments in this field are very important for successful commercialization of PVT systems in the future. Presently, as a part of the EU supported Coordination Action PV-Catapult, a draft is made for a performance test for flat-plate PVT liquid modules with crystalline silicon cells. In addition, a discussion paper has been written on reliability issues for these modules. For more information, see www.pvtforum.org. It is foreseen that in the future, this will gain more official status and will be extended to thin film cells, air type PVT and concentrating PVT.
for Bruce Hall, a residential college of the Australian National University. The system consists of 8 troughs, each being 24 meters long. In the USA, the company Solar Focus is developing the BiSolar PVT concentrator. Finally, in Canada, Sunwatt was commercially producing the low-concentrating stationary PVT modules HD100 and HD150 during 1981-1989. Although commercial production was stopped, Sunwatt continues to offer workshops in which PVT devices are constructed and sold.
Photo: Sunwatt - Richard Komp
An integrated concentrating PVT air collector was installed by Sunwatt in 1987 and is still running.
Present state of certification

From the market point of view, standardization and certification of performance and reliability are essential requirements to achieve a successful market introduction in the building sector. Furthermore, reliable performance certification is often mandatory in order to qualify for support from national support programs, where the financial support to the client is dependent on the efficiency of the systems. Performance certification is defined for either solar thermal systems (EN 12975) or for PV Power systems (IEC 61215), but currently not for combined systems, for which several additional issues arise:
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Present state of R&D
R&D on PVT liquid modules started in the 1970's and, with a dip during the 1980's, continued until today. Most of the research is on thermal module efficiency optimization, and to a lesser extent on systems studies and economical aspects, while the number of studies on reliability aspects and optical optimisation is very small. Since 2000, also a small number of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies has been carried out. PVT liquid collectors A number of PVT prototypes have been constructed, such as a sheet-and-tube PVT collectors (De Vries, 1998), channel type PVT collectors (Zondag et al. 2003), PVT collectors with plastic absorbers (Sandnes, 2002), thermosyphon PVT collectors (Agarwal & Garg, 1994; Chow et al. 2005) and ICS PVT collectors (Krauter, 2004). Glazed and unglazed PVT liquid collectors were compared by Tripanagnostopoulos et al. (2002). Often, the PVT prototypes were constructed by the connection of a commercial PV laminate to a commercial solar thermal collector A weak point often was the thermal resistance of the connection, especially for unglazed collectors (the thermal insulation due to the glazing makes the collector less sensitive to the heat resistance between the PV and the collector fluid). Often, the performance of unglazed collectors was severely degraded due to this internal thermal resistance (Sudhakar and Sharon, 1994; Van der Ree, 1996). Glazed PVT collectors can produce high temperature heat directly, and are therefore suitable
Photo: Solon - Bernd Litzenburger
for direct heating of tap water. Various systems studies on glazed PVT systems were carried out (Zondag, 2001). In addition, a study on the stagnation temperature of a glazed PVT collector was carried out by Zondag et al. (2002), while LCA studies have been carried out by Frankl et al. (2000) and Tripanagnostopoulos et al. (2005). Unglazed PVT collectors have a lower output temperature and are therefore often combined with a heat pump in system studies (Ito et al., 2004; Bakker et al., 2005; Nishikawa et al., 1993; Gasner and Wen, 1982). However, the dependence of unglazed PVT on the market penetration of the heat pump may cause problems for the marketing of unglazed PVT. PVT air collectors Only a few studies have been carried out into PVT air collectors, which is probably due to the limited market share of solar air heating. Performance studies for single channel glazed and unglazed PVT air collectors were determined (Tripanagnostopoulos et al., 2002). Also LCA studies have been carried out on these collectors (Tripanagnostopoulos et al, 2004). Comparisons of single channel and dual channel PVT air collectors were carried out by Sopian (1997) and Hegazy (2000).
Ventilated PV with heat recovery In the 1990's, with the coming of PV facades, also the research into ventilated PV started. The focus here was on the thermal efficiency of the facade, ranging from the simple statement of measured values to sophisticated flow simulations and the establishment of effective correlation functions for the heat transfer (Brinkworth, 2000; Sandberg and Mosfegh, 1998; Bazilian, 2001; Eicker, 2003) to module perform27

PV-HYBRID-PAS, in which a number of existing buildings were simulated with a hypothetical PVT system (PV-HYBRID-PAS, 2000; Wouters et al, 1997). In addition, studies were carried out for residential buildings in Hong Kong (Ji and Chow, 2003), for the Mataro library (Mei et al, 2003) and for the Brockshill Environment Centre (Cartmell et al., 2004). Studies on ventilated PV providing heat for solar cooling have also been carried out (Eicker et al., 2000; Butera et al., 2005). Because of the fact that the temperature level of the ventilated PV was too low for direct use in solar cooling, the temperature level needed to be increased by conventional solar thermal air collectors or by a cogeneration plant. Eicker (2000) found that over the period of July-September, the 225 m2 ventilated PV facade provided 14% of the required heat, while the 300 m2 ventilated PV roof provided about 35%. The remaining 51% of the required heat was provided by150 m2 of conventional air collectors. Adhikari (2004) found that the 160 m2 ventilated PV faade could provide about 28% of the heat required in the CRF solar cooling system, while the remainder was provided by a cogeneration plant. PVT concentrators The PVT yield could be increased by means of reflectors or even parabolic troughs. Studies have been carried out on the optimisation of the reflector design (Brogren, 2003). In addition, module studies have been carried out, comparing a low concentration PVT with diffuse reflectors to conventional PVT (Tripanagnostopoulos, 2005). Also LCA studies have been carried out on these collectors (Tripanagnostopoulos, 2005). Tracking modules were studied and developed at the Australian National University (parabolic trough with a concentration of 37) (Coventry, 2005) and at the University of Lleida (Fresnel mirror with a concentration of 11) (Rosell et al., 2005), while static concentrating modules were developed for wall integration at the Universities of Lund and Uppsala (asymmetric parabolic reflector with a concentration of 3) (Gajbert et al., 2003; Helgesson et al., 2004). A CPC dual channel PVT-air collector with a concentration factor of 1,85 was studied by Othman et al. (2005).
Imagina Studio - TFM
ance studies (Bazilian et al., 2002; Strachan et al., 1997) and design methods (Infield et al, 2004). A point of attention is the fact that the internal heat resistance is more critical than in the case of liquid. Therefore, research has been carried out to increase the heat transfer by means of fins etc (Tripanagnostopoulos, 2001). Literature overviews of heat transfer increase methods for PV-air modules are presented by Kelly (2000) and Hodge and Gibbons (2004). Systems studies are few. However, important work was carried out within the European project
Photo: Arontis - Joakim Bystrom
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Glazed/unglazed PVT The effect of glazing on the efficiency curve was measured by Tripanagnostopoulos et al. (2002), for both air type and liquid type PVT. However, the glazing does not only affect the performance but also the stagnation temperature. In case of unglazed PVT, the stagnation temperature of the PVT module will be similar to conventional PV temperatures and additional problems do not arise. However, for glazed PVT, the stagnation temperature is strongly increased by the glazing and can exceed 120 C. This may be critical to the encapsulant, e.g. when EVA is used (Zondag et al., 2002; Affolter et al., 2000). Type of PV-absorber A small number of studies has been carried out into the absorption of PV over the entire solar spectrum (and not just the part of the solar spectrum that can be used to generate electricity). This topic is important in order to improve the thermal performance of the PVT (Affolter, 2000; Platz et al, 1997; Santbergen, 2005). In addition, the fact that the PV absorber is not spectrally selective has a strong negative effect on the PVT performance. Some studies have addressed the spectral selectivity of PV material and TCO's, but since the PV needs to be protected from moisture and is embedded in an encapsulant, spectrally selective characteristics of the laminate top glazing seem more relevant. However, studies into the possibilities of spectrally selective glazing have not been published. Standardization and certification of performance and reliability are well defined for either solar thermal systems (EN 12975) or for PV systems (IEC 61215), but currently not for PVT systems. It is necessary for the commercialization of PVT to pay attention to the additional issues that arise in PVT systems, in comparison to separate PV and solar thermal systems. Initial steps in developing dedicated PVT tests were taken within the EU supported Coordination Action PV-Catapult. With respect to PVT research, the scope is generally very module efficiency oriented and very few studies on issues such as reliability are published.
Conclusions
Many PVT developments have been started over the years and a few of these have now resulted in commercial or near-commercial applications. Most types of PV-thermal collector are by now commercially available, ranging from PVT liquid collectors, both glazed and unglazed, to PVT concentrators. Ventilated PV-systems are commercially available, but generally the design of these systems is not standardised and the design and installation is carried out by specialised companies for specific buildings. However, this situation is changing since several institutes and manufacturers have made an effort to standardise these systems.
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4. Potential markets for PVT

The first three chapters of this roadmap serve as a general introduction of PVT from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The last five chapters of the roadmap serve as an inventory of what should be done in PV-Thermal, resulting in an action list. In order to set priorities for PVT, one should start with the commercial potential for PVT systems. Due to the large variations in product type, concepts, user demands etc. it is important to split the market in different segments in order to understand the conditions, requirements and potential for each of the segments. The identification of promising markets then serves as a basis for the systems to be developed and the actions that should be carried out for this. The aim of the present chapter is to give this market overview, identifying interesting market segments for PVT. In addition, future developments for these segments wil be given and regional variations will be indicated. Finally, an inventory of competing technologies will be made.
solar thermal newly installed capacity, worldwide (the booming Chinese market accounting for 78%, Israel and Turkey together for 8% and the rest of the world for 5%). For solar thermal, in 2003 the roadmap 'Sun in Action' has been developed by ESTIF. The ESTIF market segmentation is presented in Figure 14. Note that only glazed collectors are taken into account here, which mainly implies that the market for outdoor pool heating is not taken into account. The largest market segment is here defined as the residential sector, with 90% of the market. The remaining 10% consists of tertiary (8%), industrial (<1%) and other (<2%). The industrial thermal demand consists largely of high temperature heat, for which PVT collectors are less suitable than for lower temperature applications. It seems therefore logical to concentrate on the residential market, while tertiary applications such as public pool heating may provide interesting niche markets. It is of importance to map the tertiary sector further in order to find interesting niche markets. As an example, the Dutch market is presented here, as analysed by Warmerdam (2003). In this report, an analysis of large solar thermal systems is presented, subdivided into market segments. In the tertiary market, the largest segments are presented below: Public swimming pools (58% of tertiary, 90% of which for pool heating) Campgrounds (15% of tertiary, of which 35% for pool heating) Homes for the elderly (13% of tertiary) Recreational and sports (5% of tertiary) Hotels (1% of tertiary)
Figure 14. Market segmentation for solar thermal (ESTIF roadmap sun in action).
Principal segmentation of present potential PVT market

PVT is a combination of PV and solar thermal. It can therefore be expected that the combined technique is mainly interesting for the market segments that solar thermal and PV have in common. Therefore, the present analysis starts with an overview of market segmentation for solar thermal and PV. Market segmentation for present solarthermal market
Figure 13. Newly installed solar thermal capacity in Europe. (Source: ESTIF).
The market development for solar thermal in the EU is presented in figure 13. The European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) indicates that in 2004, the EU presented 9% of the
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Although the exact distribution of PV systems over the various market segments 'residential', 'tertiary' and 'industrial' (as defined previously for solar-thermal) is not clear, it is clear that a large proportion of this market is presented by residential systems. Since this is also a sector that corresponds to the largest share of the solar thermal market, the combination of PV and solar thermal seems to have good opportunities. In addition, it is clear that a substantial part of the PV market is in autonomous applications. Since PVT would be very suitable for autonomous use as well (PV driving the collector pump or fan), it is worthwhile to explore the potential of PVT for autonomous applications, which can be expected to be a small but profitable niche. Possibilities could be autonomous air heating systems for off-grid cottages or desalination systems.
Figure 15. Cumulative installed PV power in the reporting IEA countries4 by application (MW). Source: IEA task 1 report 2002.
Changes in the market

Trends in solar thermal In the near future, changes are expected, such as a growing share of multi-family buildings and a growing share of solar heating. Especially the growing share of multi-family buildings may be an interesting development for PV-Thermal, since the available roof area per household will be more limited for such applications, which is favouring area efficient solutions such as PVT. In the longer future, it is to be expected that industrial applications and solar cooling will become more important. Solar cooling may be specifically interesting because it would open opportunities in the office market, that presently has very limited application for solar heat. A study into the potential of solar thermal in the Netherlands for the year 2010 was carried out by Ecofys (Warmerdam, Zegers and Voskens, 2001). In this report, tap water heating and solar heating are seen as having the largest potential, of respectively 39% and 45% of the total potential for solar thermal, followed by solar cooling (7% of total) and industrial heating (6%). The other applications, such as drying (3%) and pool heating (0.2%) are much smaller. A detailed study has been carried out into the industrial potential for solar thermal collectors in the Netherlands (Van de Pol & Wattimena, 2001). This study indicated substantial savings in energy demand for several industries. The largest savings were found in washing of clothes
Figure 16. Main terrestrial PV market segments (source: EPIA Roadmap)
Other utility (8% of tertiary, of which 95% for tap water and 2% for cooling) In addition, for industrial applications, the following market segments were specified: Agricultural (66% of industrial, of which 60% for drying) Car wash (1% of industrial) Other industrial (33% of industrial, of which 97% process heat) Market segmentation for present PV market Until now, only the market for solar thermal has been analysed. However, since PVT is a combination of PV and thermal, also the market for PV deserves attention. An overview of the PV-market is presented in figure 15. This figure displays two important points. The first is the large size and clear growth of the PV market. The second is the fact that with respect to the PV market, the largest market share is given by grid connected distributed systems.
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Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and the USA.

(10% savings), vegetables and fruit (6%), meat (5%), textiles (4%) and breweries (3%). However, the solar thermal potential in terms of collector area required does not so much depend on the energy savings, as on the total energy demand of these industries, and more particularly on the size of the industrial branch, which will vary from country to country. Taking this into account, in the Netherlands, the largest potentials in terms of potential industrial collector area are seen for dairy (24% of area), meat (17% of area), paper & cardboard (14% of area) and vegetables & fruit (10% of area). Possibly, this may present additional opportunities for PV-Thermal. However, although industrial applications will become more important, their market share can be expected to remain very small as compared to the dominant domestic market. Trends in PV The share of grid connected distributed PV power shows a clear growth (Figure 15). Since this market coincides largely with the potential market for PVT, PVT could benefit from this development as well. Important in the longer run is the fact that PV has shown a substantial and consistent decrease in price over the last decennia. It is to be expected that this trend will continue in the long run, although it might be temporarily halted due to the present shortage of feedstock material. In addition, in a liberalised market, the utilities will increasingly charge their customers higher rates for periods of peak demand. As electricity production by PV is often in phase with demand peaks, this will support the growth of PV. In its roadmap, EPIA depicts a scenario in which PV becomes competitive with conventional peak power in Spain in about 2010, while it will become competitive with bulk power around 2030 (see Figure 17). This has two consequences: Since PVT has a shorter economic payback time than PV, PVT will be competitive even before PV. When PV becomes competitive, PV roofs will become the rule rather than the exception, and the resulting 'battle on the roof' (not enough area for PV and solar thermal next to each other) will strongly increase the market for PV-Thermal systems.
Trends in the residential sector The energy performance of houses has shown a continuous improvement since the late 1970's, due to increased levels of insulation and, more recently, heat recovery from ventilation air. Due to this effect, the heating demand for new houses has been reduced strongly over the last decennia. Since the amount of heating is strongly reduced and is shifted towards the heart of winter, this reduces the possibilities for solar heating. However, for countries with sufficient irradiance during the heating season, advanced houses may optimize their energy performance by using a ventilation air heat-recovery system, with a central ventilation air inlet. In this case, we can easily imagine that the ventilation system could be integrated with a domestic air heating system, in which a PVT air collector could function as a solar heater and could prevent freezing of the heat recovery unit at the same time. If this collector would e.g. be an integrated facade collector, it would contribute to the thermal insulation of the house as well. With respect to hot tap water, however, a slow increase in per capita consumption can be observed, due to increasing comfort demands and decreasing household size. This indicates a large future potential for domestic water heating, a task for which PVT liquid collectors are highly suitable. In the building sector of the future it is very likely to become mandatory to have a certain percentage of the total energy supply to be covered with building integrated solar solutions, which will provide a push for standardized solutions for the
Figure 17. Price development of PV (source: EPIA roadmap, RWE Schott Solar).
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built environment. A vision for the future of the building sector should include having roofs as active solar elements, covering most of the energy needs of the building, regardless its division into heat and electricity needs. Whereas office buildings might need more electricity, private houses generally use more low temperature heat. In any case, the overproduction should mainly be converted into electricity since only this energy can be stored efficiently by feeding it into the electric grids. Another trend is the fact that, due to high installation costs, the use of prefabricated elements is growing. In time, fully prefabricated roofs could become standard in which solar energy systems such as PVT are already integrated. This would strongly reduce the amount of installation time needed. In order to facilitate this development, the standardization of PVT in terms of size and shape, corresponding to the conventional standards in the building sector, is important. In Greece, 99% of the installed collector area is for domestic hot water production, while about 1% concerns large centralized solar systems, mainly for tap water heating in hotels (ESTIF roadmap, 2003). In Israel, since 1980 an obligation exists for the installation of solar DHW systems in all new buildings below a height of 27 meters, with the exemption of hospitals and industrial buildings. This has lead to the present situation in which 85% of the households are using a solar system. In Israel, residential DHW systems account for about 50% of the market (75% of which is replacement), while industry (16%), the public sector (14%) and power generation (12%) also have significant shares (ESTIF roadmap, 2003). In the USA 96% of the solar thermal heating is pool heating. Also here, the residential market has a share of 90%, while the commercial market has another 9%. The share of tap water heating is only 2% and is insignificant compared to the level of fossil tap water heating (ESTIF roadmap, 2003). In general, the economy of PVT systems depends on local conditions, particularly with respect to the cost of the fuel it replaces. This fuel may be either electricity (Greece), oil (Austria, Germany) or natural gas (the Netherlands). This will influence the overall revenue and therefore the design and operation mode of a PVT collector. For the future, it can be expected that in Southern Europe, a substantial potential exists for cooling applications and solar thermal power systems. However, these applications still need further development. With respect to agricultural drying, the potential will differ from country to country, depending on the agricultural production. PV With respect to the PV market, it can be seen from Figure 19 that the share of grid connected versus autonomous systems varies greatly.
Market differentiation
In the previous paragraphs, a general overview of the PVT-market has been presented. However, it is to be expected that not all PVT systems are suitable for all regions. It is therefore important to obtain some overview of the differences between regions. Solar thermal
Figure 18. Installed solar thermal capacity per capita in 2004 (data from Weiss, 2006).
For solar thermal applications, large regional differences may occur, due to differences in climate, legislation and subsidies, as shown in figure 18.
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In particular, it can be seen that countries like Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, Austria and Switzerland have a share of over 80% grid connected systems, while other countries, such as Mexico, Norway, Canada, Israel, Finland, Sweden, Australia, France and Portugal have shares of over 80% off-grid systems. Obviously, although grid connected has the largest market share, for a number of countries offgrid applications may also present an interesting market. Since autonomous systems are likely to be more cost effective than grid connected applications, it may be relevant to pay specific atPOTENTIAL OF PVT MARKET IN SOUTHERN EUROPE Greece: The existing thermal collectors are 3.5 million m (2.5 GWth) and regarding photovoltaics, the existing installed PV power is about 3.5 MWp. The electric water heater is the main competitor to the solar water heater and the main solar thermal product is the thermosyphon water heater. The current annual solar thermal market in Greece is about 200.000 m2 per year including also hotels studios, etc. The systems are covered usually with warranty of up to 5 years. The basic solar thermosyphonic system is composed of a 1.8 to 4.0 m2 collector area and a hot water storage tank of 120 to 250 litres. Domestic water heaters are distributed mainly through the retailers or wholesalers. They are regarded as standard (finished) products like fuel boilers, burners, heating elements etc. The large systems are mostly installed by the manufacturers or through large distributors who have capacity to cover the engineering needs of the project. There are two main priorities in the energy policy in Greece: first the completion of the basic infrastructure for natural gas and the gradual penetration of the market by it and the second is the deregulation of electricity and natural gas market, which is expected to be completed by 2006. Solar water heaters are contributing a lot to the security of supply of electricity. Due to the extensive use of electric air conditioners, the electricity network is working at close to breakdown during several days in summer. The situation is more critical in those islands whose electricity network is not connected to the mainland network. It is estimated that the installed capacity for the generation of electrical energy would have to be increased by approximately 10% if no solar water heaters existed. Considering the wider application of solar energy systems and the target for 2010 with the penetration of PVT systems, we estimate that many of them could be installed on existing buildings replacing the old thermosyphonic systems. Considering the existing collector surface area, a 10% replacement of it with PVT systems could result to a 15-25 MWp additional installed power respectively, provided that the PV subsidy is extended also to small domestic systems, which is presently not the case. Cyprus: The contribution of solar energy to the total energy consumption in Cyprus is 4.5%. This energy is used mainly in the domestic sector (93.5%) for hot water production. There is one solar water heater for every 3.7 persons in the island, which is a world record. Typical solar water heaters in Cyprus are of the thermosyphon type and consist of two flat-plate solar collectors having an absorber area between 3 to 4 m2, a storage tank with capacity between 150 to 180 litres and a cold water storage tank, all installed on a suitable frame. The estimated collector area installed up today including central systems in hotels and hotel apartments is about 560.000 m2 (0.4 GWth) out of which 540.000 m2 are installed in houses and flats. The average quality of solar water heating systems is acceptable and the solar water heater in Cyprus enjoys a very good reputation. The industry of solar water heaters expanded very quickly and today reaches an annual production of about 30.000 m2 of collectors (about 30 manufacturers). Applications of photovoltaics in Cyprus are very limited. The people are very familiar with solar energy systems and this makes easier the replacement of the old thermosyphonic systems with PVT. Apart from the thermosyphonic PVT units, the aircooled PVT systems are less useful for application in Cyprus, as it is also for Greece, because space heating in buildings is necessary only 4-5 months annually. PVT water heating systems can be considered a viable solution as they can effectively combine the electricity production with water all year and space heating during winter. The feed-in subsidy of 0.20 /kWh is very promising for the PVT system owners, as this amount is very attractive considering the current price of the grid-electricity (0.12 /kWh). In addition, the contribution of the PV produced electricity would be helpful for the economy of the country, as in this way a significant amount of imported oil for the electrical power stations can be avoided. Considering an initial replacement of 10% of the old thermosyphonic units by the new PVT systems, an amount of about 3 to 5 MWp, depending on the PV module type, will be introduced in the electricity grid of the island.
Figure 19. Installed PV power in the reporting IEA countries by application (%) in 2002. Source: IEA task 1 report 2002.
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tention to autonomous applications in the fields of residential, recreational, agricultural, desalination, etc. as an interesting niche market. Subsidy schemes For regions not connected to the grid, PV can be cost effective already, replacing a diesel generator or avoiding long supply lines or cables. However, PVT is dedicated mainly to buildings (because of the thermal yield) and has therefore to focus on regions with electricity supply. In regions with electric grid connection, PV systems are nowadays mainly not cost effective without subsidies. For pushing PV - as it is one of the most promising electricity sources for the future many cities, regions and federal authorities have introduced support schemes, based on grants or on the very effective feed-in-tariff system. Incentives exist in Europe and Japan, but also in most of the USA and many other countries worldwide. The global PV development, which shows an annual increase of more than 30%, depends strongly on these incentives. Although the cost effectiveness of solar thermal systems is much better, they also mostly need subsidies as incentives for customers to favour solar instead of conventional heating systems. Because of this, it is important to make an inventory of subsidy schemes in order to assess how these will work out for PVT. PV subsidies PV subsidies may be along two lines: 1. Output related grants. Over Europe, there seems to be a general trend towards feedin tariffs. In general, such subsidies would be suitable for PVT systems as well. In countries with high feed-in tariffs, however, it is economic to optimise the generation of electricity as far as possible, which promotes unglazed PVT systems in which the PV efficiency is increased at the expense of thermal efficiency. 2. Fixed grants. In regions where there is no subsidy or only grants for PV installations, the value of PV reflects only the electricity price if the electric energy can be directly used in the house. Assuming that the subsidy is only based on the nominal power of the laminate,
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it may well be the case that the electrical optimisation of the system becomes less important and that the focus will shift to the thermal performance of the system. Solar thermal subsidies Solar thermal subsidies may also be along two lines: 1. Output related grants. Generally, output related grants are presently not used for solar thermal, since the owner of the system does not deliver energy to anyone else. However, it can be expected that in the future, such grants will be introduced along with a permanent control on the yield, because it is a way to ensure that the owner of the system feels responsible for the functioning of the system. This development is reinforced by the expectation that in the future, large professional customers (e.g. housing associations) may only want to install systems with a guaranteed annual yield. In Germany, there are initiatives for a "solar-thermal feed-in law". For PVT, such a development would be very interesting, since a grant based on the real output of the system would make PVT less dependent on the threshold conditions that may be attached to fixed grants (see below). As in the case of PV, the additional cost of monitoring may promote larger installations, which may favor centralized installations e.g. for high-rise buildings. 2. Fixed grants. This grant may be applicable per area installed. However, such a scheme favors large areas of low-cost low-efficiency collectors (which may favor large areas of unglazed PVT). However, in order to stimulate technological development of thermal collectors, other subsidy systems exist that set a periodically increasing minimum threshold for the thermal efficiency, which should be met in order to qualify for the subsidy (e.g. in Germany). However, the threshold level is based on the performance of good solar thermal collectors. Since the thermal efficiency of PVT is lower than that of solar thermal collectors (among others because of the simultaneous production of electricity), such a scheme generally implies that PVT does not qualify for the solar thermal support.

Photo: Solstis
From this discussion it can be derived that the subsidy scheme might influence the design and operation mode of a PVT collector.
Competitors for PVT systems

The broad definition of what is a competitor to PVT depends on the choice that a customer has to make (shall I reach my prescribed energy rating through a PVT or through an energy recovery unit?, shall I make a PVT facade or would a marble facade be more attractive?, shall I have PVT on my roof or just buy green electricity?). However, although these are very realistic choices, such a broad definition of 'competitor' is not feasible here and a narrow definition will be used of an apparatus that also generates fully renewable power and heat. This gives the following competitors: PV and solar thermal side-by-side. These products have been on the market much longer and presently have a clear advantage in terms of market size and associated lower production costs. Typical products are traditional solar thermal collectors, photovoltaic power systems and trombe walls. Side-byside systems of solar thermal and photovoltaic systems are likely to become the direct competitor to PVT Systems. It can be expected that more and more installation and mounting systems will be developed combining solar thermal and photovoltaic power systems with roofing and facade systems respectively. For larger building integrated systems, a high flexibility can be expected towards combining various sizes of solar thermal panels with various sizes of photovoltaic panels, thus providing the option to change the thermal to electrical power ratio. For the more advanced systems easy cabling and connections will be developed as integrated part of the mounting systems. In order to keep up with this competition, it is important that enough attention is paid to the flexibility and ease of installation of PVT systems. Biomass and PV or TPV domestic cogeneration plants. A biomass and TPV plant would be fully independent of the amount of irradiance, which would make it a very reliable system for all-year use. However, TPV is still firmly within the R&D area. An alternative would be to combine PV and biomass,
with the additional benefit of a certain level of complementary use. The main disadvantage of biomass is the more difficult transport and operation. Since comfort (including ease of operation) is of major concern for most consumers, this option will most likely be a competitor for autonomous systems only. Autonomous PVT systems may then be more appropriate for applications depending on summer use or sunny areas, whereas biomass & TPV systems may be more appropriate for winter use in areas with low irradiation. Heat pump combined with PV or green electricity. For a well-insulated house, a PV roof will provide sufficient electrical energy to run a heat pump that provides the full heating of the house. This may be more economical than a PVT tap water and space heating system, especially if PV prices continue to decline or if the cost of green electricity is further reduced. In Switzerland for example, a 200 m2 family house corresponding to the standardized label Minergie can be heated up with a burner power of only 4kW or less, with annual oil or equivalent consumption of about 800 liters. For such low energy buildings, it is becoming more and more easy to cover 100% of the heat with a heat pump. This is a popular option in Switzerland, where 60% of the electricity consists of hydropower. This has some implications for PVT, since a heat pump needs an energy source: Energy roofs are now coming on the market, that function as the source for a heat
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Table 7. Main niche markets for the short, medium and long term.
medium term long term short term niche markets collective tap water systems for campgrounds, sports, homes for the elderly, hospitals and hotels, pool heating for (public) swimming pools, autonomous systems space heating systems and solar cooling systems for the commercial sector niche markets in industry, e.g. clothes washing or processing of agricultural products solar drying systems and greenhouse heating systems for agriculture
pump. If such roofs would be covered with PV, an unglazed PVT collector would result in which the cells are very effectively cooled. A point of attention is the amount of storage that is required for the matching of the solar input and the demand. Earth coupled heat pumps may decline in performance if the soil freezes, a condition that may occur if a sufficiently large cluster of houses is using heat pumps. Also regulations may prohibit the net extraction of heat from the soil. Unglazed PVT would be a very interesting option for regenerating the soil, with the additional benefit of doing part of the tap water heating, thereby reducing the electrical demand of the heat pump. Heat pumps are particularly suitable for space heating, but less so for tap water heating. In addition, heat pumps also provide the possibility for cooling. Therefore, this development is a very good candidate for office applications, and in the long run could replace large solar thermal space heating systems. Also
solar cooling could in the long run be replaced with an electrical heat pump driven by PV. For hot tap water applications, however, solar thermal can be expected to remain the best option.
Conclusion
In this chapter, an inventory has been made for the most promising markets for PVT. It was seen that the largest market is in domestic applications. Given the continuing efforts for reducing the energy demand in the residential sector, this market is expected to grow substantially over the decades to come. For the future, it can be expected that the share of multi-family houses will increase and that solar space heating will become increasingly important. Apart from the domestic market, several niche markets exist, as represented in Table 7. However, it should be kept in mind that these niche markets are much smaller than the domestic market, which should be the main target for PVT.
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5. Drivers and barriers in the market

In the previous chapter, an overview was given of the potential of the markets that could be interesting for PVT. However, PVT will not automatically gain access to these markets. It is important to keep in mind that only a minority of the customers are technology lovers or engineers. It is not the cleverness of the PVT concept that will be the main driver but only the induced gains offered by this technology. The perception of which are the main gains of PVT will differ for the different groups involved. Therefore, it is important to ask what is required of PVT to qualify for the different market segments. What are the bottlenecks to the introduction of PVT on these markets and how can these be addressed? What are the perceived benefits and how can these be optimised? This chapter will give a detailed overview of the different actors relevant for the markets indicated in the previous chapter, and show which drivers and barriers are especially relevant for them. and hotels), pool heating for (public) swimming pools and autonomous systems, for the medium term in space heating systems and solar cooling systems for the commercial sector and for the long term in solar drying systems and greenhouse heating systems for agriculture and niche markets in industry. For each market defined in chapter 4, the decision making process to install PVT technology will be analyzed below. Within the decision process, the following groups should be addressed: The decision maker The suppliers The influencers The decision maker may be a homeowner, a housing corporation, a company, a real estate developer etc. Suppliers can be the manufacturer (a PV or a solar thermal company), the installer, an engineering company or an energy company acting as an intermediary. Influencers can be of several types such as the installer (again), the architect, the municipality, a financing organisation or the national government. All these actors have their own drivers and barriers for the implementation of PVT. An overview is presented in Table 8.
Decision processes
In chapter 4, a number of markets were identified as interesting for PVT. The main market was seen in systems for the domestic market, for which the increasing importance of solar heating and multi-family buildings was indicated. Niche markets were identified for the short term in collective tap water systems (e.g. for sports
type of market domestic single family house private pool heating autonomous recreational multi family house services hotel
market size
decision maker home owner, housing association, real estate developer home owner home owner real estate developer, home owners association, housing association hotel owner, recreational company real estate company real estate developer, real estate company, municipality, company campground owner municipality, recreational company municipality, foundation municipality, sports association company farmer
influencer installation company
supplier solar thermal manufacturer
energy company PV manufacturer municipality architect national government commercial bank consumers organisation farmers organisation installation company energy company building company PVT assembler
office
industrial agricultural
campground public pool heating home for the elderly/ hospital sports facility car wash/laundrette drying barn, stables
Table 8. Decision chains for PVT
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Photo: Solar & Bramac Dachsysteme International
Actors and their drivers & barriers

This paragraph presents a list of the relevant actors with their respective interests. They are dispatched in the three categories: decision makers, influencers and suppliers. It was tried to answer the following questions: Why would these people want PVT or not? What is restraining them or pushing them onwards? Decision makers Homeowners: domestic applications A large number of renewable energy installations is commissioned by homeowners that want to have solar energy systems on their own houses. This is typically an existing home. The PV may be commissioned any time, while a solar thermal installation is typically commissioned at the time of renewal of the central heating boiler. In countries with high feed-in tariffs, PV has become a profitable investment, which motivates homeowners into the commissioning of large PVsystems. For such large PV-systems, the resulting battle-on-the roof between PV and solar thermal presents a good marketing argument for PVT. However, also in areas where no high feed-in tariffs exist, PVT may be interesting for homeowners. For a private homeowner, energy price is not the unique criterion for making the decision, but also other factors are of importance, such as lifestyle, image and perceived benefits, as well as the effort required of him in terms of preliminary work for application, installation and maintenance. An important issue at this time is to have energy delivery at a solar price, that is not sensitive to conventional commercial fuels. A private owner considers the whole budget rather than the specific energy price. In this approach, the fact to have more area than a standard solar collector system could even be an advantage, since more roof area will be covered with solar roofing elements. The commercialising of PVT systems will be assisted by creating add-ons on the system that motivate the consumers to choose for the system for other reasons than price only. Aesthetics, uniformity, functionality, life duration, roof protection, water tightness, ethics, autonomy and prestige are a number of non economical top40
ics that can help a homeowner to take the decision to invest in solar energy. For PVT systems, the arguments are the same, but PVT will present a different offer that will be interesting to people interested in advanced technologies, as well as people having a more limited roof area. Other important topics are the reliability of the system and the ease of handling and maintenance. The required maintenance should be minimal, the reliability should be very good and there should be good after-sales services to solve problems as quickly as possible. In addition, PVT could be interesting to decrease the dependence of consumers on weak electricity grids. Although the availability of the electricity supply in Europe is mainly very good, this feature may be interesting for remote European regions or in other parts of the world with weak grids. And even in areas with a highly reliable grid, homeowners will still feel pride in being less dependent on the public grid, which may be a sales argument for PVT. Homeowners: private pool heating People having a pool can increase the utilisation season of the pool by means of a heating system. Since pool owners are only a small fraction of the larger group of homeowners, we assume that this option doesnt represent a large market. Nevertheless, pool heating may be an interesting niche market that in some countries, such as the USA, has a substantial size. Among pool owners, the use of pool collectors is very popular and the decision to use a solar pool collector is primarily economic. For private pool heating, people are ready to invest an amount corresponding to the heat expenses for heating up the pool during 1 to 3 years, i.e. between 3000 and 6000 EUR. This application is

very popular since it needs a small investment and offers a short payback time. A user wanting to invest in a photovoltaic system will have the possibility to choose for PVT, allowing him to gain heat for increasing the season of the pool. If the PVT system heat output is dedicated to pool heating, the cost of the PVT heating component (the difference between the cost of the PVT and a standard PV installation) should not overcome the approximate price of standard pool solar thermal system. For a 50 m2 pool, one has about 3000 EUR over cost, i.e. 60 EUR/m2 for the turnkey thermal system connected to a PV system. This is quite low but the price should be in this range in order to ensure success. An interesting optimization can be found if one PVT collector system is installed for both pool heating and tap water heating. This system will be a standardized domestic hot water PVT system not only dedicated to the pool. Homeowners: autonomous applications A small subgroup of homeowners may be interested in PVT systems for autonomous applications, such as tap water heating or room heating for off-grid cottages, or applications in mobile homes. In addition, water desalination systems may be of interest in island applications or in arid near-sea areas, both for single-family and collective use. In general, these systems will be smaller than conventional domestic systems. For autonomous applications, the issue of economics is reduced. In addition, for mobile applications or small portable systems, the lifetime may be less critical than for domestic application. At the other hand, issues such as easy installation and maintenance may become more important.
many housing associations were semi-governmental, but a large privatisation development has taken place. Nevertheless, many housing associations are still motivated to integrate solar energy into their building and renovation projects. For these companies, PVT could be a very interesting option, because of the possibility to realise two-in-one with the associated reduction of project management and planning required, due to the fact that one company is responsible for both PV and thermal, and because of the promotional aspect of PVT, due to the fact that it is a new and attractive technology. Furthermore, the stock of housing associations consists largely of multi-family buildings, for which PVT may be especially suitable due to the limited roof area available, which provides insufficient area for side-by-side systems. There are opportunities for large-scale newly built housing projects, but the reconstructions, because of the high potential, should be not forgotten. The occupants profit from the solar gains while the housing association has to pay the investments but does not profit directly from the lower energy bills. Therefore, an issue for housing associations is the question to what extent they can compensate the investments by an increase in the rent, which is often legally bound to certain limits. If the installation of a solar energy system is part of a large-scale renovation, this may increase the possibilities. In addition, other business models may circumvent this problem. As an example, the housing association owning the PVT system may sell the electrical and thermal yield to the energy company, that sells the heat back to the occupants in the form of supplying it to the collective heating system, while the electricity may be sold elsewhere as green electricity. In this case, the occupant does not experience an increase in rent, but also not a decrease in energy costs. Another possibility would be that the housing association just leases roof area to the energy company, while the energy company remains the owner of the PVT system. Municipality The municipality owns buildings, that it can choose to upgrade with solar technology. These buildings may be offices, but also municipal swimming pools or school buildings. The motivation for such plans may be the profiling of the municipality, possibly in combina41
Housing association Housing associations are responsible for a substantial part of the building stock and realise large building and renovation projects. Originally,

Mataro library - TFM
promoting a house. This effect is even more prominent in the case of high feed-in tariffs. because he wants to profile himself with a green image. In that case, the PVT application can be a good way of integrating solar energy in the building project. In the case of a building company offering a standardized PVT system, the advantage for the PVT supplier is to be without competitor. This approach is at the same time cheaper (PVT systems purchased / produced in bulk, lower installation costs for a large number of systems). Combined with other (renovation) measures on the roof and of the installations, the costs can be even lower. The advantage for the real estate developer is to have a single warranty responsible and a reduction of project management and planning required in comparison to installing PV and solar thermal separately. Real estate company A real estate company owns e.g. office buildings that are rented to companies. Most real estate companies are purely commercial, but not all of them (e.g. governmental buildings are usually owned by a governmental real estate company). In addition, funding companies, such as a pension fund, may have a large participation in a real estate company, and may not have exclusively commercial aims (e.g. green funds). For very commercial real estate companies, there may be limited interest in the independent commissioning of solar energy applications. However, less commercial real estate companies (governmental real estate company, green funds) may have targets for realising a certain percentage of solar. For these companies, PVT could be a very interesting option, because of the possibility to realise two-in-one with the associated reduction of project management and planning required, due to the fact that one company is responsible for both PV and thermal, and because of the promotional aspect of PVT, as it is a new and attractive technology. Similar to the case of housing associations, real estate companies do not profit themselves from a reduction of the energy bill; in principle the profit goes to the companies renting the building. However, also here, other business models may remedy this situation (e.g. the real estate company selling the yield to an energy company, that sells it back to the occupant). Finally, it should be stated that in
tion with the fulfilment of obligations to the national government. In addition, the municipality may want to invest in demonstration installations for motivating private people and organisations to install solar energy systems themselves. In these cases, the choice for PVT would have the advantages of providing a high profile solar technology, a single warranty responsible and a reduction of project management and planning required in comparison to installing PV and solar thermal separately. Real estate developer A real estate developer may have an independent motivation for the installation of solar energy systems, for different reasons: because he is obliged to fulfil certain building energy performance criteria as stipulated by the national government and/or municipal authorities and can do this cost effectively with solar energy systems. because he expects it will help the sale of the house: at a time of oil price increase combined with an increasing sensitivity to environmental problems, to offer a turn key house with an integrated solar system is a way of
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the case of sufficiently high feed-in tariffs, PV becomes profitable which can be expected to change the position of the very commercially oriented real estate companies radically. PVT could profit from this, especially if also a feedin tariff for heat is introduced. Hospitals and homes for the elderly Hospitals and homes for the elderly are often owned by foundations. These may be motivated to use solar energy, to save on water heating costs. Since hospitals not only have a large hot water demand but a substantial continuous electricity demand as well, PVT may be an interesting option. A strong point of PVT may be the 'two-inone' effect of PVT, reducing the administrative burden and having a single warranty responsible. Finally, hospitals require back up systems in case of breakdown of the electricity supply. Part of this backup capacity could in principle be in the form of PVT. Owners of public pools, sports facilities, hotels and campgrounds The owners of public pools, hotels, sport facilities and campgrounds can be of different types. Public pools may be owned directly by the municipality. In that case, the municipality has the primary decision to install a solar energy system on the building. For possible motivation of the municipality, see the corresponding paragraph above. Hotels may be owned by real estate companies and rented to an entrepreneur or recreational company (see real estate company) Public pools and hotels may be owned by commercial companies, such as large recreational companies Campgrounds and hotels may be owned by private persons. Public sports facilities may be owned by the municipality, a commercial entrepreneur or a sports association. Non-public sports facilities may be owned by commercial or non-profit companies. Since the motivation of municipality and real estate companies for the installation of solar energy was already presented above, it will not repeated here. For recreational companies and private persons, the aim will be threefold: the economical return, the increased comfort level and the public image. Especially the larger companies may be very interested in highly visible solar energy techniques as a means to promote themselves. It should be mentioned here that for outdoor pools, presently low-cost plastic absorbers are used. It will be difficult to compete with these absorbers, especially since the lifetime of the PV may not be compromised. For indoor pools, however, glazed collectors are used, which may give better possibilities for PVT.
Photo: Austria Solar & Solarfocus Austria Solar & Sonnenkraft BetriebsgmbH
Industry For the industrial market, the final energy cost will be of paramount importance. If there are legal conditions making solar energy profitable, industries with funding possibilities may invest into PVT systems as a way of reducing tax on profits. Without interesting financial conditions, only industries that want to promote themselves with a green image and/or have an official and true willingness to cover their needs with renewable energies will consider PVT technology solutions. For this reason, the challenge for the PVT system is to achieve maximum thermal and electrical efficiency, with heat at high temperature level and this at minimized cost. For higher temperature levels, a PVT concentration system seems the most appropriate type of PVT module. However, it is to be expected that this will be a small and - due to the high temperature levels - technically difficult market for PVT systems.
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Farmer Depending on their field of activity, farmers need a lot of hot air, hot water and electricity. Hot air may be needed for crop drying or manure drying Hot water may be needed for preparing warmed milk for young pigs or calves, floor heating of stables on heating of greenhouses ing purposes, where the PV may be used to drive the fan. An asset may then be the cooling of the PV, which increases the PV efficiency. Energy company For energy companies, renewable energy is a high profile new market. In the liberalised energy market, energy companies may look for ways to promote themselves and to provide additional services. Solar energy may provide interesting opportunities for this. Due to the fact that PVT is a high profile green technology, PVT is expected to be an interesting technique for energy distribution companies. These companies may then commission PVT systems and deliver the solar energy to the customers. Energy companies therefore are interesting partners in the development of PVT, since they can afford to start new products and are interested in diversifying their market. Finally, energy companies prefer to diminish peaks in electricity demand. The electricity production costs for an energy company are for a major part determined by the peak electricity demand of the customers. This asks for a form of demand side management in which the energy company invests at the site of the customer to reduce the peak load of the whole system. In countries with a hot climate, the peak in the electricity consumption is during the summer, due to the airconditioning load. PVT has a double effect in peak reduction, since the PV part produces electricity, whereas the thermal part can produce solar cooling or hot water (which lowers the electrical demand in countries with electrical water heating). The solar cooling option will be appropriate for professional buildings such as offices and schools, which have a cooling demand during the day, while the hot water option may be more appropriate for domestic application (people taking a shower in the evening after coming home from work). Energy companies may be interested to promote the installation of PVT systems in order to reduce the total investment in the whole electricity production, transportation and consumption chain. Since in most countries energy companies are now active in a liberated market and therefore do not consider the whole chain as their responsibility, it will take some steering action from the general governments to help the energy companies in this direction.
They will primarily install solar energy systems for economic reasons, and the issue of a shorter payback time will be more important than the height of the initial investment required. They may have enough skills and time available (e.g. during winter season) to do solar installations themselves. For all these reasons, farmers will look for a quality product easy to mount. If there are legal conditions making solar energy profitable, PVT is for this reason an interesting proposition for them. However, if a specific support scheme is not available, PV itself may in most cases not be able to compete with wind turbines. In that case, the use of PVT becomes less interesting. In the cases in which PV is an interesting option, it may be difficult for PVT systems to compete with separate PV and solar thermal systems; there often is no space constraint and, in addition, the collectors presently used for agricultural drying purposes are very cheap, low-tech collectors; since the PVT-air systems only replace low-cost collectors, the economic margin is small and it is not yet clear if PVT-air collectors could successfully compete. Nevertheless, a modest niche market may be present here, e.g. for off-grid dry44

Influencers National government The government is highly motivated to promote solar energy, on the basis of the Kyoto agreements and the related EU targets to which the government has committed itself. PVT technology can play a large role in achieving the European long-term goals for renewable energy sources. Initial estimates indicate for a PVT module a cost reduction of roughly 10% as compared to a combination of the separate modules. The European targets for PV and solar thermal for 2010 are 3 GWp and 100 million m2 (= 70 GWp thermal), respectively. If the complete power of 3 GWp would be realised by installing 30 million m2 of PVT, 30 million m2 (= 21 GWp thermal) of solar thermal would be installed simultaneously. With the aforementioned potential savings for PVT, the large-scale introduction of PVT in Europe can generate a cost reduction of roughly 3 Billion Euros on a European scale. Therefore, it is to be expected that governments will actively support PVT. The national governments have a very large influence on the promotion of solar energy through various means: The government may issue direct and indirect subsidies for different groups such as homeowners and companies for the implementation of renewable energy. The government may influence different economical sectors by specific regulations. Building sector: In many countries, the national government has set energy performance criteria to which new buildings have to comply. Until now, not all energy performance criteria also include the contribution of renewable energy. However, this will change since the European Parliament has accepted the Energy Performance Building Directive (EPBD), prescribing that the general framework for the calculation of energy performance of buildings has to take into account active solar systems and other heating and electricity systems based on renewable energy sources. Member States have to bring into force the regulations necessary to comply with this directive at the latest on 4 January 2006. Energy companies: The clearest example in which the national government can act as an influencer through the energy companies is the establishment of the feedin tariff (e.g. as in Germany), which obliges energy companies to purchase renewable energy in its service area and fixes the price at which this energy is to be purchased. However, also other methods have been used. As an example, in the Netherlands, during the 1990s an agreement existed on solar energy implementation between the Dutch government and the Energy distribution companies, resulting in a situation in which the energy companies actively subsidised solar water heaters and were involved in a substantial share of the new installations of solar water heaters, either by renting solar heaters or by mediating in the sale. As indicated before, care should be taken that the requirements for these subsidies or specific details in the legislation do not inadvertently rule out PVT systems. Municipality Often, there are targets on the municipal level for solar energy, originating from the national government or from municipal policy. Typically, the municipality gives out plots to real estate developers, to which targets for solar energy are connected. In order to qualify for the bidding, the real estate developer has to make a plan in which the prescribed contribution of solar energy is realised. In this way, large new city districts may be realised with a substantial solar contribution. In general, customers are ready to pay a bit more for the house (mortgage), if they decide to buy the house anyway, so this is a very efficient way of promoting solar energy. Municipalities act also as influencer through regulations about constructions. These regulations and the associated procedures are crucial since they define the possibilities to build or modify buildings and the effort this takes. At the moment, in some locations, it may still be quite difficult to modify building aspects since the local regulations tend to be very conservative, imposing barriers to new technologies or unconventional materials. From this point of view, PVT technology gives a unique selling proposition for a combined solar system with uniform aspect on the roof. Possibly, munici45

palities could consider offering simplified procedures for specific solar systems like PVT (even with big surface). At the other hand, municipalities may offer subsidies for solar energy that motivate consumers to install solar energy systems. Care should be taken that the requirements for these subsidies do not inadvertently rule out PVT systems. As argued also in the previous paragraph, for municipalities, PVT may be an interesting and high-profile possibility of realising their own targets with respect to the implementation of renewable energy. Financial sector Renewable energy systems typically need high investments and long payback times. For this reason, financing is a crucial issue for establishing projects. It is important to generate ways of low interest funding. Furthermore, there is no primary reason why a commercial bank would be interested in such activity, unless it would for them be a means to sell other financial products as well. It may be interesting for banks to facilitate constructions such as a solar energy system being part of the mortgage. There is no reason why a commercial bank would prefer standard solar systems over PVT systems, so PVT may be an interesting option for the future enlargement of their market. Furthermore, a number of banks have started green funds, for which more relaxed criteria for money lending to solar energy systems may be applicable. In addition, the government and the banking sector together may generate financial constructions (e.g. green mortgage), in which the banking sector provides reduced interests to customers for green energy projects, in which the reduction in the interest is financed by the government. Installation company The installation company plays a key role since they have contact with the end customers and/or end users. The installation company is the primary influencer for many solar energy installations. The installer is often the main advisor on what system should be installed, and if he advises against the application of solar, this opinion will generally be followed. Since the installer also acts as supplier, further information on his role will be provided in the next paragraph.
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Energy consultancy and engineering companies Energy consultancy and energy engineering companies have an important role due to the influence they can have on the choice and design of the energy system in larger building projects. It is expected that they will be open to new technologies, since they are well equipped to cope with new techniques, and may see PV-Thermal as an option to promote themselves with a new high profile technique, in order to improve their market position. Architect The architect is a very important person in the development of a building project. The building owner is rarely experienced in building construction. For this reason, he relies on the knowledge of the architect. Solar energy represents an option that is not absolutely necessary for the operation of the building. Since the solar system is rarely the unique energy source, the architect prefers often to simplify the project by using a conventional system, that allows to save budget for other requirements and that gives more liberty for dressing the building.
Photo: Austria Solar & AEE INTEC
From the viewpoint of the architect several points are necessary: PVT system should represent an added-value that helps selling or promoting the building PVT products should be flexible in shape, easy to implement and aesthetically pleasing PVT systems should be profitable, helping the building owner paying back his investment. Consumers organisation A speciality of consumers organisations is to make comparative tests of products. As soon as PVT systems will be available on the market, consumers organisations will compare PVT sys-

tems with conventional solar systems. In this comparison, the main criteria will be price, payback time, reliability and ease of maintenance and operation. For PVT, it is important that the performance should be given in such a way that a fair comparison is made with conventional solar thermal and PV systems. In addition, the reliability needs to be sufficiently assured. This underscores again the importance of clear testing procedures dedicated to PVT. Furthermore, the commercialising of PVT systems will be assisted by creating addons on the system that motivate the consumers to choose for the system for other reasons than price only. Suppliers The conventional solar energy business is at the moment in a phase of high growth. The increase in market volume presents the possibility to restructure its distribution chain. Companies involved in the heating and in the construction sector have started to offer solar thermal systems as part of their standard product range [ESTIF, April 2003]. This evolution should inspire PVT technology to reduce its maturing phase and to structure its distribution chain so as to enable a fast development at an early stage. PV manufacturer For PVT products close to photovoltaic products, PV companies may be interested to add the manufacturing of PVT products to their portfolio, and the PVT products will be distributed using the sales channel of PV photovoltaic. As an additional advantage, the PV manufacturer already has most of the equipment that is required for the manufacturing of the PVT laminate (such as laminators, tabbing and stringing equipment, etc.). A problem for this approach might be that the PV manufacturing companies are very prudent to make changes in their products because of the high demands on product quality; it is difficult to change the production process for specific options and the quality process is very expensive, since any change will require new tests with the necessary test certification reports. For the short term, this problem is further enhanced by the present lack of feedstock material, which results in PV manufacturers that focus on their main products and are very hesitant to offer special features.
However, the situation will improve when, from 2007 onwards, the feedstock problem is relieved (Photon International, 2004; 2005). This may result in PV companies trying to expand their market again and offering more special products. PVT could then be a very interesting option to enhance the green image of PV even further and open new markets. An advantage of PVair systems is that conventional PV laminates can be used, which eases the constraints presented by the quality certification. Solar thermal manufacturer For a solar thermal manufacturer, PVT would offer the possibility to upgrade the image of his products and to profit from the booming PV market - and especially the feed-in tariffs that have been introduced in many countries. A problem may be the fact that the solar thermal manufacturer has to invest in expensive production equipment such as laminators, has to buy prefabricated elements such as solar cells (including tabbing) and has to produce cell matrices at the same quality level as commercial PV manufacturers. Such investments will only be done if the manufacturer is convinced that the PVT system brings perspectives from both a production and a marketing point of view.
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PVT assembler A high investment is required to obtain all the equipment required for the production of PVT. Therefore, possibilities may exist for assembly companies, that outsource the manufacturing of specific parts of the PVT system. The assembler could e.g. buy absorbers from a solar thermal manufacturer and commission a PV manufacturer to laminate these into PVT modules, after which the assembler integrates the combined module into a collector casing. Additional synergy is obtained when the assembler is the same person as the solar thermal manufacturer or the installer. It is to be expected that the first companies starting a PVT product will be specialised assembly companies wanting to open new market shares and looking for a unique selling proposition. Installation company Installers are not always keen on solar energy systems, especially if they have limited experience in installing such systems. Since the number of solar installations is not very large compared to conventional installations, an installer may be reluctant to invest in specialised training for solar energy installations, a problem that may be aggravated further by strong market fluctuations due to inconsistent government policies. These problems may even be more serious for PVT systems, since PVT has - at present - a very small market and, since a PVT system is a combination of a solar thermal and a photovoltaic system, very broad skills will be necessary for ensuring installation safety and quality. However, the problem could be reduced if the amount of training is limited, because the sysBeaufortcourt - RES
tem is well designed and easy to mount. The skills required should be the same as compared to conventional solar energy systems, and preferably even less. This implies a strong emphasis on plug-and-play systems. In this case, the cost/benefit ratio for the installer is reduced and he will sooner be motivated to sell it and thus helping its dissemination. Building element supplier Building companies may be interested to add PVThermal to their portfolio, especially if this is a means for them to sell other products as well. PV-Thermal could be especially interesting for them as a high profile green technology. Building companies may then develop and supply prefabricated building elements that allow for easy plug-and-play integration of PV-Thermal into the building process and circumvents the need for additional roof- and facade work by installers.
Conclusions
From the previous paragraphs, a number of conclusions can be drawn. Very important for the commercialization of PVT will be the installers and the national government, while energy companies, homeowners, real estate developers, housing associations and municipalities also have a large influence. Municipalities and national government can be expected to be interested in PVT as a source for employment and publicity. Furthermore, parties such as energy companies, real estate developers, municipalities or the national government may be very motivated to apply solar energy because of legal obligations they may have. However,awareness is a problem, as only few people are informed on PVT, mainly in the R&D sector. The barrier presented by the high initial cost is for most parties of limited concern, due to sufficient financing options. Only for homeowners, and to a lesser extent for small entrepreneurs (small farmers, small recreational companies) this may be a problem. Quality and ease of installation should be important concerns for the development of the PVT collector, followed by appearance, green image and economics. The product reliability is an important issue that should receive specific attention, among others through dedicated reliability test standards. In addition, installers need
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assistance with the necessary investments in training and equipment which should be minimised through optimized PVT design). Manufacturing by a PVT assembler is a logical solution, while solar thermal companies may be interested but might view the required investments as too high. As a conclusion, we see that a number of actors exist that may be very motivated to apply PVT. Important actors in the short run are real estate developers, housing associations and municipalities, while in the longer run also homeowners will play a crucial role. Based on chapter 4 and chapter 5, the following conclusions can be reached: In the short term, specific actors in the building market may already be motivated to invest in PVT (e.g. real estate developers, housing associations, municipalities). Multi-family buildings (especially if owned by a housing association) may be an important early market, due to the limited roof area available, which promotes area efficient renewable energy applications. Furthermore, interesting niche markets may exist in autonomous applications and (public) pool heating. In the medium and long term, the most promising application for PVT systems seems to be domestic water heating and space heating. The dominant sector for this application is the large market segment of single-family houses, both newly built and existing. In the long term, professional application (industry, agriculture) and applications such as solar cooling will become interesting for PVT. It should then be concluded that the primary targets should be as described in table 9. Considering the full marketing chain, we have to emphasize that the PVT assembler and installer will anyway play a major role since they will answer all technical questions to customers (real estate developer and end customer), give the requested warranties and ensure after-sale service.
Table 9. Market development characteristics for the short, medium and long term.
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6. Comparing systems and market demands

In chapter 5, an overview was presented of the various drivers and barriers for the actors in the different PV-Thermal markets, as presented in Table 9. In the present chapter, the link is made between these markets and the corresponding PVT systems and modules, indicating the different issues relevant for the market introduction of PVT. In the first half of this chapter, general marketing bottlenecks will be indicated. In the second half, specific bottlenecks on systems and module level will be examined. tems in due time. As long as there is no real market, guidelines and recommendations might be sufficient to assist the process of keeping a high level of system and component quality. Later on, standardisation will be unavoidable, considering the positioning of the work item at the standardisation committees since it is referring to CEN/ISO from the thermal point of view as well as to CENELEC/IEC from the PV aspect. Legal aspects Legal aspects play a role in the marketing of PVT on several levels: 1. qualification aspects (e.g. qualification for subsidies, qualification for regulations regarding energy performance of buildings, energy targets for specific market actors (e.g. municipalities, energy companies, real estate companies, housing associations and others)) 2. regulations regarding procedures for installation. 3. regulations regarding building codes Qualification aspects For the market introduction of PVT, it is important that PVT qualifies for the support regulations developed for other forms of solar energy (particularly PV and solar thermal). This may not always be the case; sometimes special requirements are set (e.g. a minimum level of thermal efficiency) that impede the extension of existing regulations to PVT. In addition, it is important that PVT, as well as other solar energy techniques, is acknowledged as an appropriate technique to satisfy energy performance targets. Countries differ in the amount of freedom they give in order to obtain a good energy performance, allowing a broader or narrower range of options to obtain a low fossil energy consumption. It is important that PVT (and other solar energy techniques) are supported by such regulations. Installation procedures In most countries PV systems but also solar thermal systems have to be commissioned by a specialist. For PV this is mainly an electrician, while for thermal applications a plumber does this job. It is to be expected, that for a PVT system both
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General bottlenecks
Warranties One of the most important issues for a new market is the reliability of the products. Even though the market might be very small in the beginning, bad products can destroy the image of this technology extensively. Experience from other markets shows that even a few bad products can be responsible for a significant market reduction in a young market. Therefore, this issue should receive special attention. A lack of standardisation exists for measuring and modeling the performance of PVT and for testing the reliability. Up to now, some PVT systems were measured according to existing standards for thermal collectors and/or PV modules. However, the interrelations were not taken into account sufficiently. So far, the scientific basis of monitored PVT-systems is weak. Longterm experience with detailed results is totally missing so far. From the first experiences, the demand for future research will increase significantly. This work is specifically important since it helps producers in determining appropriate warranties for PVT, which is a prerequisite for PVT marketing. The process to start standardisation activities is generally mainly driven from industry. However, the market is small, and in addition, the weak cooperation and exchange of experience between producers of thermal collectors and PV modules is a barrier for the development of reliable PVT components. Pre-standardisation work seems to be necessary in order to classify existing products, to develop a certain quality level as well as to harmonise the products in order for the manufacturers to become acquainted with PVT sys-

experts have to make the commissioning. Since one of the main advantages of PVT systems is the potential for reduced mounting time compared to side-by-side systems, it is of paramount importance that this potential advantage is not cancelled by a legal regulation prescribing both PV and thermal experts to do the installation seperately. Building codes PVT collectors are new on the market, combining two techniques that are normally regarded as separate techniques, subject to different sets of regulations with regard to building codes, subsidy issues, energy performance directives etc. The fact that these two techniques are combined into one, means that PVT devices have to follow both sets of regulations. However, it is to be expected that PVT will not always fit into these regulations very well. Aesthetics Aesthetics is important for most PVT market segments, as indicated in chapter 5. For a small group of technique-lovers, that may function as early adopters, the high tech image of PVT may be important. Especially the electrical applications have a high tech componentimage. PVT systems could profit from this, since the joint use by combining two renewable technologies and the high standing of PV is brought together in one high tech component. For the general acceptance of solar systems, the aesthetic quality of the collectors on the building is decisive. In particular, aesthetics is important for home-owners, architects and real estate developers. Only for industrial and agricultural applications, as well as for energy companies, is aesthetics considered to be of lesser importance. Optical appearance is of crucial importance for solar products in order to become a standard product and should be taken into account latest at a stage when the market development leaves the stage of the early adopters. An important aspect of the enhancement of the aesthetical appearance of PVT systems is building integration (BIPVT). Since one of the potential advantages of PVT is better aesthetics as compared to a combination of separate techniques, this advantage should be strengthened by developing flexible and plug-and-play BIPVT elements. Similar to thermal and electrical solar installations, PVT has the obligation to become an integral part of the building mainly by being used as part of the building envelope and overtaking additional functions like rain protection or shading. Avoided costs for facades and roof tiles can then be taken into account when calculating the overall costs of a PVT system. For these reasons, BIPVT is expected to be an important future development. The fact that BIPVT will be important leads to a number of design issues: Since one of the advantages of PVT systems is to reduce the battle on the roof, PVT will often be applied in cases where PV and solar thermal together take more than the available roof area. Therefore, it may be assumed that PVT devices will often be applied in systems that cover the whole roof. Fully prefabricated PVT roofs, which are only assembled at the site, could be a promising trend towards active roofs. Large prefabricated elements (whole facades, large roof parts) with integrated PVT elements could lead to a standardised building concept where PVT is a substantial part of each (mainly south oriented) building envelope. BIPVT products will only be accepted if they
Photo: Austria Solar & Bramac Dachsysteme International
Figure 20. Building integration and aesthetics (a) PVT has an aesthetical advantage over separate systems (b) colour and flexibility is important for building integration
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are flexible concerning size, colour, framing, fittings, etc. Architects are much more open minded to use solar elements, if the choice in colour is not stricitly limited to black and dark blue. Therefore, linked to existing investigations with coloured thermal absorbers and coloured solar cells, coloured PVT collectors should be investigated. Research in PVT has to take into account the design of the collector, from glazing to framing, as well as the integration of the collector into the building envelope, which may be in the form of replacing parts of the building envelope by prefabricated PVT building elements. Ease of handling It is of paramount importance that a PVT system can be installed by one person, so that it is not required to have both an electrician and a plumber on the roof. Connection to both electricity and water must be easy to handle. The need for optimisation, simple connection and installation procedures is therefore quite high. Development efforts have therefore to be made in terms of simple plug and play-components. Similar efforts are currently made within both the concerned industries (PV and solar thermal). However, the PVT systems need additional efforts aiming at enabling either the plumber or the electrician to install a PVT system completely in short time. In addition, the development of BIPVT components, as described in the previous paragraph, will also be an important step in this development.
Training and awareness Training of installers and engineers PVT is so far no item in education and training. Since the market is more or less negligible, it is obvious that there is currently no need for in-
structing plumbers and engineers. Later on, the extension of existing solar trainings to PVT, based on long experiences in the solar sector and other related issues, seems to be easy. (e.g. the Certified Austrian Solar thermal engineer & installer). Optimal timing for the commencement of these trainings seems to be crucial in order to have from the very beginning high quality systems operating. However, only if the new technology is already visible on the market, installers will apply for this training. First prototype trainings and demo-installations joined by scientific institutes could act as demonstrators for the early installers. If the development is proceeding and first products have successfully entered the market, joint efforts of producers and independent education schemes are needed to regularly train the professionals for installing these products with high quality. The branch organisation for installers and engineers may play an important role in promoting such trainings. Specific attention must be paid to the aspect, that the profession of an electrician and a heating installer is quite different; dealing with a PVT collectors means to be educated in both professions in order to avoid the situation in which two professionals are required to install a PVT-collector. Addressing the question of the business branch (plumber/electrician) could lead to a fundamental change in general education of these craftsmen, by teaching them the basics of each others business or by providing a group of people with specialised training, allowing them to commission both. Possible legal restrictions need to be considered here as well. In addition, a strong effort has to be made to reduce these additional training requirements as much as possible by plug-and-play design of PVT modules.
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Training of architects Also for architects, training in the use of solar energy in general, and of PVT in particular, is important to show them the possibilities and potential of such techniques. The branch organisation for architects may play an important role in promoting such trainings. In addition, software for architects should be developed, to facilitate the integration of PVT in both the building design and the energetic design of the building. Preferably, this should come as a module that can be added to existing design software. Awareness So far, the market pull towards PVT systems is not very strong. On the one hand, only experts are informed about PVT, while on the other hand, very few commercially available PVT systems exist. It is important to distinguish different phases in the awareness generation. First phase: target group in the first stage must be the policy makers, in order to create the proper conditions for PVT market introduction, in order to stimulate manufacturers of thermal or electrical solar components to develop such products, mainly with assistance of research institutes involved in both technologies. In addition, installers, architects and other professionals may be informed of the fact that such a product is under development by means of publications in technical journals etc. Second phase: only after appearance on the market, public awareness should be created in order not to confuse the existing market by talking about a product of tomorrow. With respect to the message that should be communicated, it seems to be of paramount importance to focus strictly on the advantages of PVT as compared to PV and/or solar thermal. In doing so, it is important to target specifically on misconceptions that exist among actors relevant for the marketing of PVT (e.g. overestimation of the importance of the temperature effect on the PV efficiency). The following arguments should be emphasised: cheaper manufacturing of the element itself, more total energy gain per m, reduction in installation costs and mainte54
nance costs regarding the whole value chain of PVT, also reduced marketing and logistic costs should be considered carefully. Green image The image of solar systems is generally high, mainly because of the environmental aspect of using renewable energy. For PVT, the impression of too much technology could have a negative influence, as well as the fact that PV and thermal are competing for the same source of primary energy and therefore threaten to reduce the efficiency of PVT systems compared to the individual technologies. Research efforts during the design process of a PVT device should therefore aim at optimising the yield (thermal and electrical). LCA studies may help to promote the green image of PVT relative to a combination of the separate technologies.
Grid connected applications

A relation between markets and systems can be given. In order to realise the potential of PVT systems, it is important to focus on the main markets. The present paragraph focuses on the main grid-connected markets, while the following paragraph will give a short overview for the small but potentially interesting off-grid niche markets. An overview for the main grid-connected markets is presented in Table 10. For glazed PVT liquid collectors, the main market is seen as the domestic hot water market, being by far that largest market segment as indicated in chapter 4. Interesting niche markets are seen in the tertiary market for applications such as homes for the elderly, hospitals and sports buildings. It is expected that these PVT systems will be less suitable for domestic heating, keeping in mind the reduced thermal efficiency as compared to conventional solar thermal collectors, which will lower the performance during the heating season, especially for the short heating season experienced in low-energy buildings. For unglazed PVT liquid collectors, the main market is seen in the combination of this collector with a heat pump for space heating application. The main future markets would then be the domestic market, again because
Table 10. Relation between market segments and PVT systems for grid connected applications. Future main markets are indicated in red, niche markets in yellow.
of the size of this market, and the tertiary market, because it is to be expected that the heat pump will become increasingly popular here due to the cooling it can provide. A smaller specific market is seen in PVT pool collectors. For glazed PVT air collectors, unglazed PVT air collectors and ventilated PV facades, the main market is seen in utility space heating during the winter. In the future, this may be combined with preheating air for solar cooling during the summer. However, this will require an additional source of heat such as booster collectors to reach the required temperature level. This system may be especially relevant for low energy houses with a central heat recovery ventilation unit, where the ventilation air can be integrated with the domestic air heating system. Although the domestic market is large, it is expected that this will be a niche market due to technical limitations of such systems and the difficult competition with liquid collectors. For concentrating systems, the main market is seen in large professional high-temperature applications. Therefore, solar cooling in the tertiary sector is seen as having the largest potential.
Domestic market General issues For consumers, the issues of quality, ease of handling, a feeling of autonomy and appearance are of primary importance and financing is an important bottleneck. Quality of the system is very important. A strict quality chain from tested components to monitored systems but also well trained installers and planners are needed. Quality labels are important in order to make such a high quality process visible for the customer. The systems should be warranted for at least as long as the backup heating system and good after sales services are mandatory. In addition, the owner should have an indication about how well the system is performing. Installation of the system needs to be easy plug-and-play, in order to reduce the installation costs and allow for only one installer carrying out the full installation. In addition, maintenance requirements should be negligible. It should be made as easy as possible for the consumer to purchase these systems, by reducing the required amount of paperwork to
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a minimum. Preferably the opportunity of purchase should be a standard opportunity on boiler replacement and assistance should be provided in the subsidy applications. Appearance of the system is of increasing importance. Building integration will become increasingly standard due to real estate developers applying solar energy in newly built housing projects as part of the energy performance requirements. Therefore, prefab PVT building elements should be developed. Financing methods are required that lower the financial burden on the consumer, ranging from inclusion of the system in the mortgage, to solar contracting and lease of the system. Cost reduction of the PVT system is important to increase the market penetration. All further efforts in development of glazed PVT have to carefully consider that cost reduction is an important argument for the application of PVT. In addition, the yield per Euro invested will become a criterion on which consumers organisations will start to compare solar thermal, PVT and PV modules, which is an incentive to increase the module efficiency.
other functions (e.s. shading) that widen the spectrum of possible applications. For concentrating PVT, the aesthetics are less due to the problematic building integration of such systems. This reduces the applications for such systems to collective applications where they can be put on the flat roof. In order to improve the cost efficiency, the thermal efficiency of PVT should be further increased. In particular, the absorption and emission values should be improved. Single family tap water heating (Glazed liquid PVT) Further R&D is required to minimise the effect of the high collector temperatures on the lifetime of the PV. In addition to prefab elements for the newly built market, standardised plug-and-play PVT water heaters should be developed for addon in existing buildings. It is important that these have sufficient aesthetic appeal. Because the area required for solar tap water heating is much less than the roof area of a one-family house, it is recommended to develop systems in which the PVT can be combined with PV in a side-by-side system. Collective tap water heating (Glazed liquid PVT, concentrating PVT) Collective tap water systems for multifamily buildings may be a large niche market for glazed glazed liquid PVT collectors, and could be a main market for concentrating PVT collectors. Due to the larger system size, tracking may become economically feasible. Glazed liquid PVT. The same considerations hold as in the case of single family tap water heating. Concentrating PVT. Concentrating PVT collectors are less suitable for building integration. However, they may be positioned on flat roofs of multifamily buildings. An advantage is their low loss factor that allows for good performance under low ambient temperatures. Failsafe methods need to be developed to prevent stagnation temperature damage to PVT concentrators (out of focus movement for tracking collectors or high temperature resistant materials for non-tracking collectors). In addition, for tracking systems, system reliability and the corresponding main-
Module related issues General issues The aesthetics of flat-plate PVT is generally good. For the future, large PVT areas, which could cover the whole roof or parts of the facade could make buildings more attractive, especially if we think of the highly appreciated effect of PV, due to the appearance of the solar cells. The existing approaches in the PV technology with differently coloured cells and foils (blue, green, red, grey,...) will open up an attractive field for innovative architects. Development should focus also on adding
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tenance may be problematic, but this issue could be reduced if not the individual inhabitants but a professional body such as a housing association is responsible for this. Space heating and tap water heating (Unglazed PVT with heat pump) The system reliability may be compromised by the heat pump. It should be taken into account that many heat pumps can only work efficiently with source temperatures below 20C, although, in case of higher collector outlet temperatures, it is technically possible to add cold water. In addition, the lifetime of the heat pump might be shorter than the expected lifetime of the PVT collector. Compared to glazed PVT collectors, the temperatures in the collectors are lower which should be of advantage for the lifetime; the lifetime of the product will benefit from the reduced operating temperature since the collector materials will be less thermally stressed. However, the strict requirements for quality and reliability require more attention on the reliability of unglazed PVT systems as well. For unglazed collectors (both conventional and PVT collectors) good building integration techniques have to be developed. Promising developments are e.g. the Rheinzink energy roof and the EMA collector system developed by ISFH. For most applications, the heat pump electricity demand is substantial and will probably exceed the electrical production of the PVT system. This may cause an image problem due to the fact that the origin of the electricity for the heat pump needs to be taken into consideration. Although in Europe the liberalisation of the electricity market opens the opportunity to change the electricity supplier and switch to a Green Electricity supplier, the higher cost of this electricity would influence the profitability of this application. Pool heating (Unglazed liquid PVT) This application will have to compete with low cost plastic pool collectors side-by-side with PV. This will be very difficult, especially since a long lifetime is required because of the PV. With the present techniques it is foreseen that it will be very difficult to make this application profitable. However, in the future, flexible absorbers may successfully be combined with cheap polymer PV techniques. Component related issues Inverter: PV systems linked to the grid are nowadays mainly not able to continue the electricity supply if the main grid is shut down. This currently also leads to a breakdown of the heating or cooling supply, since the pumps for the heating/cooling system are also not operational. In future, PV inverters could have the standard feature to continue operation in times of solar radiation but no grid supply. For PVT, such systems are then much more reliable and will especially in regions with weak electricity grids become very attractive. Inverters should be developed that do not switch off when the public grid fails. Attention should be paid to controls that do not violate the prohibition on islanding1 . In addition, the design of the PV system must be chosen appropriately to be able to fulfill the needs of the heating/cooling system autonomously. A good monitoring system should be developed showing the yield of the system. Preferably, the monitoring device should not work on batteries but be connected to the electricity grid and show values that are of interest to the consumer (e.g. savings, if possible). Tertiary market General issues Parts of the tertiary market are owned directly by the municipality and the national government. Since these parties may be very interested in promoting solar energy, they may have targets for solar in which PVT could fit very well. In addition, real estate developers and possibly housing associations will be forced into the application of solar energy by energy performance directives from the municipality or the national government. This may create a substantial tertiary market for solar energy systems, including PVT. In addition, PVT has the additional benefit of being a high profile technique, which may also attract parties in the tertiary sector and may be regarded as a sales argument by real estate developers.
1 Islanding is the situation in which the PV continues to deliver power while the main power is switched off. This is presently not allowed, based on the idea that if someone switches off the main power, there should not be any power left on the grid that can present an electrical hazard. However, it is reasoned here that there are ways around this, e.g. by allowing the inverter to continue functioning in case of public grid failure, but to make sure that the inverter is switched off if the main power switch in the house is turned off.
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Photo: Austria Solar & Teufel&Schwartz
Legislative measures are very important, since the potential contribution of PVT should be properly represented in the energy performance directives, in order to profit from these. For commercial applications, aesthetics are very important and building integration is an important issue, but for municipality and government these criteria may be less strong. Due to the fact that systems are typically much larger and more custom made, the issue of standardisation and plug-and-play is less prominent for this market. Issues with respect to operation and maintenance may be less problematic than for consumers, since a maintenance staff will normally be present and may routinely carry out these tasks. This also allows for more complicated systems. For new buildings, prefabricated PVT building elements need to be developed, in order to facilitate large-scale integration of PVT as part of project development schemes. For retrofit applications, financing constructions may be an issue. Although the initial cost will normally not be a problem, the department budget system may cause problems, since it may not be clear from which budget the money should come. Standard financing solutions for this issue may be required. Module related issues Tap water heating (Glazed liquid PVT, concentrating PVT) A large niche market exists for tertiary sector buildings with a large tap water demand, such as swimming pools (showers!), homes for the elderly, hospitals, hotels, sports buildings etc. The issue of stagnation temperature is less problematic than in the domestic sector, where people may go on holidays during the summer, since most of these tertiary applications will still have a substantial hot water demand. Nevertheless, also for this application, further R&D is required to minimise the effect of the high collector temperatures on the lifetime of the PVT. Also here, the difficulty of building integration would limit the application of PVT concentrators systems that can be located on flat roofs.
Public pool heating (Glazed and unglazed liquid PVT) For swimming pool application we have to differentiate between two applications: heating of outdoor pools (only in times of high ambient temperatures) and heating of indoor pools (also in times of colder ambient temperatures). For the first case, unglazed non-insulated solar thermal modules, usually made of rubber or plastic, are the best, cheapest and well-established solution for swimming pool heating. This is obvious, since the system is only operational in times of high ambient temperatures; a cover as well as insulation is basically not advantageous for this application. However, for the second case, glazed collectors are often applied. Unglazed liquid PVT. Experiences from Germany and Austria show, that in recent years the market for pool application is significantly decreasing, which might offer PVT also only a small market segment. For standard swimming pool collectors the efficiency can reach values of 85% or more, but the absorber is also able to gain energy from the air (without solar radiation). By using a PVT collector, care should be taken not to reduce this gain by adding PV at the upper surface. Generally, in case of swimming pool heating, if the pool is uncovered and used only in times of high temperatures, the competition with the cheap established absorbers seems to be quite heavy. However, in countries with PV feed-in-tariffs, an unglazed PVT as a solar roof is already attractive even in economic terms- whenever the roof of a public bath has to be renovated. Due to the relatively low water temperatures, PV is cooled efficiently during the sunny season. Gains received from the PV system could enable contracting models for financing. Depending on the PVT construction, a metal absorber might
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be necessary instead of the rubber or plastic absorbers normally used, which causes further expenditures for heat exchanger, piping and separate collector circuit compared to a standard solar absorber which can be directly operated with chlorinated water. Glazed liquid PVT. A different situation occurs, if the pool is indoor and used also in times of moderate temperatures. In that case, the PVT collector has to compete mainly with standard glazed thermal collectors instead of cheap plastic collectors. A problem may be that during the summer, indoor pools are typically closed for maintenance, leading to prolonged stagnation periods. Office space heating (Unglazed PVT with heat pump, PVT air systems, ventilated PV) Due to the relatively large electrical demand of offices, compared to the thermal demand, it is recommended that side-by-side systems of PVT and PV should be developed for this market. Unglazed liquid PVT with heat pump. For office applications, heat pumps are highly suitable due to the added possibility of supplying the cooling load. For the function of space heating, PVT may well serve as the source for the heat pump (storage is required since the thermal output of the collector will fluctuate while the heat pump needs a constant heat supply). In addition, the high daytime office electricity demand will largely coincide with the time of the PV energy delivery, resulting in optimal use of the PV. Furthermore, the high profile of the technique and the targets for energy performance in office buildings will stimulate the implementation of such techniques. Ventilated PV. From the energetic point of view, this application is probably the most efficient way to use PV and cool the facade in order to have double temperature effect: By actively cooling the facade, one directly cools down the building by avoiding direct solar radiation on the walls and one also reduces the temperature of the PV modules, which leads for most PV cells to an increase of the PV-efficiency. Furthermore, facade integration is very well developed. Design tools need to be developed in order to facilitate wider application of this technique. Also, system control (volume flow rate, collector outlet temperature) needs to be developed. An interesting additional option may be the combination with solar cooling (see below). PVT air collectors. These collectors are more efficient than ventilated PV and the control is better developed. Therefore, a smaller area is required, which makes these collectors more suitable if space is limited. Also here, solar cooling may provide an interesting option. Because of the higher efficiency of glazed collectors in comparison to ventilated PV, the need for booster collectors is reduced. Solar cooling (concentrating PVT, PVT air collectors, ventilated PV with additional booster) Cooling is about to become the main market in low energy applications. Also in moderate climates like mid-Europe, the demand for cooling is increasing significantly. Mainly due to the increasing desire for comfort, but also due to increasing internal heat gains and improved insulation levels in office buildings, cooling becomes more and more necessary. Solar cooling has already shown its functionality in various applications. Many, mainly larger systems for offices, are already equipped with solar cooling systems.
Photo: Austria Solar & Siko Solar VertriebgmbH Photo: B. Karlsson - Vattenfall
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Availability of space might be an item for office buildings, to combine heat and electricity production. In case of countries where PV is subsidized well, the roof is used for the PV system and might offer no further space for a second system for heating and/or cooling. Therefore the combination within a PVT module will be attractive especially for office buildings with a high cooling load. Energy companies may be interested in supporting such a system, since solar cooling can significantly contribute to peak load shaving of the electricity system. Nowadays, in several Southern European countries, the electricity peak loads are mainly in summer, when all cooling systems are operational. The compression system needs a lot of electricity that leads to high peaks. Solar cooling will be required only during the summer. For concentrating PVT liquid modules, the economy of the system would be strongly improved if the system could also be used for hot water, possibly supplemented with space heating during the winter. This makes the system especially suitable for tertiary applications that do not only have a cooling load but also a significant tap water demand, such as hospitals and old peoples homes. For ventilated PV or PVT-air collectors, the combination of solar cooling with space heating seems the most logical. That would make such systems especially suitable for tertiary applications with relatively low hot water demand, such as offices and public buildings. Further studies into system optimisation for solar cooling are required. For the case of concentrating PVT, an issue is the weak possibility for building integration; improved concepts for such applications would be welcome. In concentrating systems, stagnation temperatures are enhanced. For tracking systems, moving the system out of the sun will be necessary, affecting the electrical yield. For ventilated PV combined with conventional air collectors (for boosting the temperature level up to the required minimum temperature of about 60 C for solar cooling), an issue is the combination of both types of collectors into one system. Standardised building integration systems need to be developed for these combinations.
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Component related issues For PVT concentrators, techniques for office facade integration should be further developed, with corresponding components. For ventilated PV, standardised building integration systems combining ventilated PV with conventional air collectors need to be further developed, with corresponding components.
Off-grid applications
Although the off-grid market is small, the competing technologies are mainly diesel generators in the field of electricity and biomass, oil and standard solar applications in heating and DHW, which makes this market an interesting niche for PVT applications. Niche markets could be in recreational applications such as mountain huts (either privately owned or commercially exploited) and mobile homes or vans. Other niches could be in desalination installations (e.g. for island application other near-sea arid areas), which could be small scale (individual households) or large scale (entire communities). Finally, agricultural applications such as drying should be considered. An overview between different systems and markets is presented in Table 11. A problem for PVT in this market is the competition with separate PV and solar thermal systems. At the one hand, space constraints will be less problematic and aesthetic demands will be reduced. At the other hand, installation and transport costs are much more important, which might be an important advantage for PVT. Due to the fact that long-term absence may be prominent in this market and maintenance and replacement is expensive, it is important that

systems are very reliable or do-it-yourself. In addition, the problem of theft may need specific attention. Consumers Consumers can choose for hot water systems and room heating systems. Since transport and installation may be problematic and costly, the system needs to be simple and easy to mount, preferably by the owner himself. This requires systems with a high degree of prefabrication that are relatively small. A point of attention is the theft risk during the prolonged absence of the owner, that it should be possible to secure the system, or (for small systems) to store it away during the owners absence. PVT air systems present a very good match, being able to provide ventilation with heated air also in the absence of the owner and thereby protecting the house from moisture problems. This system is already on the market. Water heating applications may be problematic. First of all, off-grid applications will mostly not be connected to the water piping system either, which implies that for applications such as showering, natural water will be used (e.g. from a rainwater tank or well) for which the water quality may be low, requiring robust pumps and filters. If the owner is absent for long periods, long stagnation periods and also freezing may occur. For small-scale use, this may lead to small portable plug-and-play collectors that can be connected to a fixed water storage during presence of the owner, and can be
decoupled and stored during his absence. For larger systems, installation costs may be an obstacle. Although do-it-yourself systems seem promising because of the high transport and installation cost associated with autonomous applications, this may compromise the safety and reliability of the system, especially with respect to the freeze protection. In order to enhance the reliability, it may be required that the system is drained during the absence of the owner. The irregular load may result in long stagnation periods. Combined with the fact that cottages will be used mainly during the summer season this suggests that unglazed PVT systems may be the most appropriate. An interesting application can be PVT systems for water desalination. Such systems may be of interest for island applications or other near-sea arid areas. They can be scaled from individual family systems to collective applications, e.g. for small communities. For these systems, autonomous PVT systems may be of interest, e.g. for reverse osmosis,
Table 11. Relation between market segments and PVT systems for off-grid.
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in which electricity is used to drive the pump while the thermal yield is used for heating the inlet water. It is an important asset that such systems can be manufactured as plugand-play stand-alone systems. Attention should again be paid to the issues of reliability and theft. Commercial stand-alone Professional stand-alone applications may be campgrounds or mountain huts. This sector will have the same demands as consumers, but the constraints are less severe. Initial cost will be less problematic and load patterns may be much more regular, although still showing a strong seasonal peak. This will increase the economy of these systems. Also here, PVT systems for water purification may be an interesting niche market in island applications or arid areas. Hot water systems will be more suitable than for autonomous consumers, while the technical problems are reduced, due to professional installation, easing the use of glycol systems. Agricultural application Drying with solar energy mainly in the agricultural sector might become an interesting market. Especially in regions with no electricity supply, drying combined with PV electricity production might become a further promising niche of PVT applications.
Hay drying with solar air collectors was already done some decades ago, however, the market penetration was very weak. In any case, the total potential of this market segment seems to be quite modest. The main function of the PV will then be to drive the fan, which limits the required PV area relative to the required solar thermal area. Whether glazed or unglazed systems will be used depends on the temperature level required, but for many applications, unglazed will be the most appropriate. The increased electrical yield due to the cooling of the PV may allow a smaller PV area, increasing the profitability of the system as compared to separate PV and solar thermal.
Conclusion
Table 12. Priority issues for PVT market introduction
general issues certification financing schemes, subsidy issues awareness reliability issues (e.g. stagnation temperature resistance) efficiency issues (optics, heat transfer, temperature effect on PV) aesthetics plug-and-play PVT design tools combined PVT & PV systems combined PVT & heat pump combined PVT & solar cooling
Based on the promising markets for PVT and the appropriate market-system combinations, a number of issues were identified as priority issues for the market introduction of PVT. An overview is presented in table 12, while an action plan for these issues will be defined in chapter 7.
technical issues
integration issues
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7. Identification of key developments

In chapter 6, a number of issues were identified that should receive attention in order to assist the commercialisation of PVT. A number of general issues were identified, together with a number of technical issues. In the present chapter, a detailed action plan for these issues is presented. Separate paragraphs are dedicated to each of the subjects and each paragraph is concluded with a development scheme distinguishing the short, medium and long term. A schematic overview of these issues is shown in Table 13. A ranking (ranging from 1-5) has been added to indicate the importance of the various issues for the different PVT module development trajectories.
Table 13. Schematic overview of issues for PVT commercialisation
General issues
Measuring techniques, standards and certification Existing international standards are EN 12975 and ISO 9806 for thermal collectors as well as IEC 61215 for PV modules. These cover reliability and performance verification procedures and electrical safety issues. So far, tests of PVT systems at laboratories are conducted according to own procedures and/or according to standards for testing thermal solar collectors, which makes a comparison of test results very difficult. Energy performance under different climatic regions is still an open issue. Close combination of PV cells with large metallic structures (the absorber and heat exchanger installation) poses new demands on the construction and electrical system design. Electrical hazard protection, leakage current limitation, capacitive coupling to ground and corrosion from moisture are critical issues, which are only partly covered by standards. The energy rating of PVT collectors is a completely new topic. Electrical and thermal performance have to be evaluated into a combined rating, with a separate rating for thermal performance and electrical performance at defined temperatures and from one or more combined tests. To evaluate the total performance, the primary energy savings or the CO2 emission reduction can be used as a ranking criterion. The problem with that however is the dependence on the fuel mix and efficiency for electricity generation, which is different from place to place. An extra complication is that the electric and thermal performance are interrelated, because of the temperature dependent output of the PV cells. Other issues that should at least be addressed are the stagnation resistance of the PVT collector and the thermal shock resistance.
Type liquid glazed liquid unglazed air glazed air unglazed concentrator ventilated PV relevance
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Table 14. PVT certification development scheme.
short term R&D institutes Develop a comprehensive performance test method for PVT systems Develop a stagnation test method Develop a thermal shock test method Develop an integrated ranking criterion for the evaluation of the PV plus the thermal performance of the PVT system. Carry out long-term PVT reliability and performance tests medium term R&D institutes, certification institutes, manufacturers Develop standards and certification methods for standard PVT collectors (flat plate liquid, c-Si) Develop test methods for non-standard PVT systems (advanced PV concepts, PVT concentrators, PVT-air) Make recommendations for improved PVT certification, based on long-term test results. long term R&D institutes, certification institutes, manufacturers Develop standards and certification methods for non-standard PVT systems (advanced PV concepts, PVT concentrators, PVT-air)
Financing issues
For renewable energy systems in general, most costs are upfront whereas for the competing fossil systems most of the costs are during operation in the form of energy costs. This can be a great hurdle for a renewable energy system to take, especially for PV that is at the moment still far from being cost effective in grid connected applications. For PVT, although the economics are better, the upfront cost are even higher than for PV since the additional thermal system also adds to the price. For homeowners, the easiest way to overcome the financial hurdle of the upfront investment is to incorporate the PVT investment in the mortgage of the building. In this way the payment is spread over about 30 years. In general interest rates on mortgage loans are rather low, because of the low risk involved since the house serves as the security of the loan. Other options are the possibility of leasing or renting a system.
For companies, for the case of retrofit, financing constructions may also be an issue. Although the initial cost will normally not be a problem, the department budget system may cause problems, since it may not be clear from which budget the money should come. Standard financing solutions for this issue should be developed.
short term
banking, government
Develop financing schemes that facilitate the purchase of PVT systems. Develop financing schemes that take into account the departmental structure of companies.
Table 15. PVT financing development scheme.
medium term long term
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Subsidy issues To overcome the hurdle of the upfront investment also subsidy schemes could be created. This can be in the form of an investment subsidy, a tax credit or a feed in tariff. The exact form is less important than the right amount (not too much, not too little) and the reliability of the subsidy scheme. In case of PVT, the energy yield of the system would suggest to allow the full PV subsidy (or feed-in tariff) plus a part of the solar thermal subsidy, due to the lower thermal yield of these systems. However, if one would really want to push this technique, because of its efficiency and its potentially high contribution to the EU targets, one could allow a bonus, e.g. in the form of the full solar thermal subsidy. Subsidy schemes have to run for many years otherwise the effect can even be very harmful. Because of subsidy schemes private investors are tempted to invest in PVT production facilities and all can be lost when the subsidy scheme is stopped after say 5 years. The private investors will be very reluctant to invest in renewable energy again. It is also good to introduce a yearly reduction of the subsidy, in which technical, industrial and market progress is incorporated (learning curve). It also makes clear that the ultimate aim is to come to a cost effective system. For installers, training subsidies could facilitate their involvement in PVT, speeding up the commercialisation. For the government, the driving force will be CO2 reduction, employment and innovative production. Municipalities will have a similar outlook as the national government, but will be focussing more on promotion of the municipality, which makes high profile techniques such as PVT especially interesting. For utilities the driver will be especially to reduce peak load demand. PV and especially PVT have a strong influence on the peak power demand in countries where air conditioning demand is responsible for this peak power demand.
short term medium term
government, municipality government, energy companies
Make sure that existing subsidies do not exclude PVT Develop subsidy schemes for potential customers of PVT systems (especially home-owners), which are reduced periodically. Develop training subsidies for installers
Table 16. PVT subsidy development scheme.
long term
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Awareness and training
Although a number of PVT market products exist, PVT has a very small market share. This implies that awareness for PVT is small at all levels (from policy maker and installer to consumer). The low level of knowledge impedes a fast market penetration of PVT, and raises barriers due to the fact that the specific characteristics of PVT are not taken into account in legal regulations and subsidy issues. installers do not have specific training for the installation of PVT systems. Apart from the general issues related to PV and solar thermal, specific PVT issues are the module weight and the combination of electrical and thermal connections (connecting module to inverter properly, connecting module to hot water system). Ideally, only one installer would be required to install a PVT module, taking care of both the electrical and the thermal installation. Since most installers do not have both skills, this implies that the systems
should be as much as possible plug-and-play, so that only limited training is required, but in addition, installers should be trained to do this installation properly. It is to be expected that in the first phase, manufacturers will do the installation themselves or will give dedicated training to selected installers, while separate craftsmen will be required for electrical and thermal. Essential for awareness are the experiences from demonstration projects. A sufficient number of such projects should therefore be carried out.
short term
PVT manufacturers, installers
Installer instructed by manufacturer Awareness campaigns should be targeted at policy makers level to obtain support for PVT and to ensure that PVT is properly represented in building energy performance directives
medium term PVT manufacturers, installers
Field tests should be carried out. Internal training in large installation companies, provided by PVT manufacturer Solar thermal craftsmen also making electrical plug and play connections Awareness campaigns should be targeted at decision makers and decision influencers level (consumers, real estate developers, architects) to ensure the implementation of PVT
Table 17. PVT awareness development scheme.

long term
Demonstration projects should be carried out.
Type liquid glazed liquid unglazed air glazed air unglazed concentrator ventilated PV
relevance
Legal aspects As indicated in chapter 6, due to the fact that PVT is a new technique, it may not fit well into existing regulations (e.g. energy performance of buildings, subsidies, prescribed installation procedures, building codes). It is impor-
tant that an inventory is made of this potential problem, and that awareness is raised at policy maker level to repair such problems in existing regulations and to prevent new problems in future regulations (e.g. when the new EU energy performance directive comes into force in 2006).
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short term PVT manufacturers, installers, policy makers Inventory of bottlenecks in existing regulations Awareness campaigns should be targeted at policy maker level to obtain support for PVT and to ensure that PVT is properly represented in building energy performance directives medium term policy makers Action should be undertaken to repair regulations that unfairly put PVT at a disadvantage long term
Table 18. PVT regulations development scheme.
Technical issues
Stagnation In general, PV systems and solar thermal systems should be able to withstand direct insolation without active cooling, because active cooling systems (pumps and fans) can fail, as power can fail. This is also very important for glazed PVT systems and low-concentration PVT systems. For high concentration PVT systems, it is simply not possible to design them in a stagnation resistant way; these systems depend on out of focus movement in case of stagnation. This means that a failsafe mechanism should be found for out-of-focus movement, that also functions in times of power failure. Investigations have to be carried out and tools have to be elaborated in order to know exactly and reliably the temperatures in all components of PVT absorbers. This concerns the stagnation situation in order to prevent the complete destruction of a PVT device. But it also concerns the normal operating mode in order to improve existing constructions and to develop new constructions of PVT absorbers. A way to overcome the stagnation problem of PV modules in a thermal collector is by not using standard solar modules but by connecting bare solar cells to a thermal collector. In this way only the solar cells should be able to withstand the high temperatures, as well as the interconnection of the cells, the electric cabling and the bonding material. The solar cells still need to be bonded to the absorber, but the requirements for the bonding material will be strongly reduced, compared to full encapsulation. However, techniques have to be found to seal the cells from moisture (or to produce PV that is intrinsically moisture resistant), to accommodate the difference in thermal expansion between the PV cells and the absorber and to ensure a sufficient level of electrical insulation between cells and absorber. Possibly, alternative absorbers may be found that have a lower expansion than metals. The expected lower thermal conductivity may be compensated by the application of fully wetted absorbers. In addition, thin film PV techniques may be used that are less brittle than PV cells. Another way is to find stagnation temperature resistant encapsulants. Encapsulants have to fulfill a number of requirements, such as being highly electrically resistant, preventing corrosion of the metal contacts of the PV cells and being able to accommodate to the difference in thermal expansion of the (c-Si) solar cell and the (mostly) copper thermal absorber. The simplest bonding technique that can resist 150 oC is silicone. However, silicone has a low heat conductivity, so the bonding layer should be thin. For PVT concentrators, effective stagnation protection should be developed that is able to move the collector out of focus at times of power failure. This may be a battery charged DC system that is fed by the PV. Possibly, gravity based controls could be developed that move out of focus if external power is not applied.
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Table 19. PVT stagnation resistance development scheme.
short term R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers Development of tools to investigate exactly and reliably the temperatures in all components of PVT absorbers Develop high temperature resistant encapsulation techniques (e.g. silicone-based). Develop an electric insulation, interconnection and cabling technique which can resist elevated temperatures medium term R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers Develop moisture sealing techniques that allow for the use of unencapsulated solar cells. Optimise encapsulation techniques for heat transfer Develop effective stagnation protection for PVT concentrators long term R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers Develop roll-to-roll moisture resistant PV Integrate the solar thermal absorber fully with PV
relevance
Thermal module efficiency The efficiency of PVT can be optimised further by improved thermal insulation and improved optical efficiency. This may lead to an improvement in the economics of PVT. However, any improvement in the thermal efficiency will also lead to an increase in the stagnation temperature, and therefore makes the issue of stagnation resistant PVT more critical. PVT efficiency can be improved in a number of ways: With respect to the development of covered PVT-modules the recent achievements of antireflective glass (AR-glass) are important and offer positive development aspects. If normal solar glass is used as a cover, the reflection losses are about 9%, but with an AR-glass the reflection losses are only 4%. The application of an AR-cover will lead to improved thermal and electrical PVT efficiency. In addition, anti-reflective glass opens the option of using double glazed PVT collectors, with substantially higher thermal efficiency than the present generation of glazed PVT. Recent results from thermal collector developments show that a double glazed AR collector has about the same conversion factor h as a single glazed collector with normal solar glass. As the heat losses of a double glazed collector are also reduced this means that double glazed AR collectors with (non-selective) PV cells as absorbers may have a thermal performance as good as state-of-the-art single glazed collectors with selective absorbers today. The development possibilities in connection with AR glass have to be investigated under the special conditions and requirements of PVT collectors (materials, stagnation condition, construction aspects).
A standard solar thermal absorber has a very high solar absorption and a very low infrared emission (solar absorption coefficient typically 93 to 95 % and thermal emission coefficient typically 5 to 10%). This is called a spectrally selective absorber. Present day PVT modules are not spectrally selective, due to the loss of transmission associated with spectrally selective coatings for glazing that could be used as superstrate in PVT absorbers. Therefore, PVT absorbers have relatively high thermal radiation losses. If suitable spectrally selective coatings could be developed, or if use could be made of the spectral selectivity of the solar cell techniques themselves (e.g. if bare cells could be used, which requires alternative moisture protection techniques), the thermal efficiency can be improved PV concepts should be developed that are optimised not only for electrical but also for thermal performance; an effort should be made to minimise the reflection of the PV, also for solar radiation with energy below the bandgap. This requires research into techniques to lower the longwave reflection at the silicon interface, as well as improved light trapping for long wave radiation. The heat transfer from the PV to the collector medium is very important. Especially for unglazed PVT, this thermal resistance has a large impact on the thermal efficiency. In addition, the electrical efficiency is negatively affected due to relatively high absorber temperatures. The heat transfer is affected by two issues: The thermal resistance of the bonding technique. With respect to the bonding technique, care should be taken to minimise the thermal resistance, e.g. by means of additives to the
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encapsulation or bonding to increase the heat transfer, and by making these layers as thin as possible without compromising the electrical resistance and the accommodation of thermal stresses. The heat transfer resistance to the collector fluid. For collector liquids (water, glycol) this is generally not a problem, but for all solar air collectors, including PVT-air collectors, a good heat transfer from the PV panel to the air in the cavity behind the panel is crucial for the efficiency of the system. As is known from all the development work in solar thermal air collectors, there are numerous ways to enlarge the heat transfer, by for example ridges or fins. These ridges or fins or other structural elements should be integrated with the backside of the PV panel. Finally, the solar thermal absorber could be integrated fully with PV, for example by producing PV with a metal foil (thermal absorber) as a substrate. A starting point could be the a-Si technology developed by United Solar Systems and Canon. Here, an a-Si thin film layer is deposited on a sheet of stainless steel of about 0.1 mm thickness. The process is roll to roll, the length of each coil may reach 100 m, the width is about 0.3 m. Critical issues are corrosion protection of the fragile thin layer of active material and electrical insulation of the active material, cell to cell as well as cells to ground.
short term
PVT manufacturers, R&D institutes
Apply solar cells with a high solar absorption Develop double covered PVT modules with AR-glazing Develop highly transparent low-e coatings For PVT-air add heat transfer enhancing structures (for example metal fins) to the backside of the PV module For PVT-air produce a highly turbulent flow in the air cavity to improve the heat transfer. Develop bonding techniques for minimal heat resistance between PV cells and collector fluid. Develop dedicated PVT cells by optimisation of the solar absorption of PV cells Apply highly transparent low-e coatings Integrate the heat transfer enhancing measures in the production technique of the PV module. Develop modules in which the PV cells and the absorber are fully integrated (deposition of thin-film PV on metal substrate).
medium term
PVT manufacturers
Table 20. PVT efficiency optimisation development scheme.
long term
Apply dedicated PVT cells with optimised solar absorption
Temperature dependence of solar cell performance Most solar cells are made of crystalline silicon (either poly- or mono-crystalline). With this material the electricity production decreases with increasing temperature. The temperature coefficient is about 0.4-0.5% of (electric) efficiency reduction at every oC temperature increase. In a (covered) PVT application the temperature is higher over an average year than with standard PV modules. The power reduction due to increased temperature can be reduced by switching from c-Si to
relevance
a-Si or to another material with a better temperature coefficient. However, then PVT cannot make use of the good electrical efficiency of c-Si.
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short term PVT manufacturers Carry out economic optimisation studies for diferent types of PV in PVT, taking into account the operation temperature of the PVT Investigate in real applications by how much really the electric output is reduced by increased cell temperatures in installed field systems medium term PVT manufacturers, R&D institutes long term PVT manufacturers R&D institutes Develop thin film PV techniques with better high temperature performance Find ways to lower the PV temperature during stagnation conditions.
Table 21. PVT Temperature dependence development scheme.
Integration issues
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is an issue of major importance for groups as varied as homeowners, companies, real estate developers and architects. It is important to establish criteria for good PVT design. In addition, flexibility in shape and colour, as well as an optimal fit to the building stream should be obtained.
short term medium term PVT manufacturers, Consultancy, architects Inventory of the aesthetic requirements of homeowners, architects and other relevant groups Development of PVT systems that are flexible in size and colour, as well as uniform in appearance. Development of industrially designed PVT modules long term PVT manufacturers Testing and commercialisation of aesthetically optimised PVT modules that allow for flexible integration
Table 22. PVT aesthetics development scheme
Development of plug-and-play modules

One of the main advantages of a PVT system is the reduction in installation time required. This can only be realised when the interconnections with the electrical and heating systems are straight forward and can be applied fast. In the case of PVT liquid the interconnection has also to comply with additional demands when combining water and electricity in the same system. The system should be installed by just one installer and not by a separate electrical installer and a thermal installer. Most of the work will be product development
short term PVT manufacturers, installers
using existing interconnection techniques. On the long term, new interconnection techniques might be developed where the electric cabling and the hydraulic system will be integrated.
Product development using standard interconnection techniques for the electric cabling and the thermal connections (air and water). Comply to all the requirements for systems using the combination of electricity and water outdoors Work on definition of standard and test procedures of integrated inter connection techniques Real plug and play systems Integration of the water lines with the electric cabling
medium term
Table 23. PVT plug-andplay connection development scheme.

long term
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Design tools Good design tools are essential for the application of PVT systems. Design tools facilitate the implementation of the PVT system in the building development process. The design tools have to range from rules of thumb and spreadsheet based models to more sophisticated models like a full physical simulation of the yearly performance. The whole range of design tools should be developed focusing on the target group which will
short term R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers, engineering companies, architects
use the design tools. Dimensioning tools should be developed for architects, in which they can easily dimension the PVT roof to fit in their building design. These tools should also have the possibility to make a visualisation of the PVT roof on the building. Sophisticated performance modeling tools should be developed for engineering companies, in order to make detailed calculations of the PVT system yield. These tools can be based upon the TRNSYS simulation model.
relevance
Develop rules of thumb and spreadsheet based models for standard PVT modules (PVT liquid, flat-plate) Develop dimensioning aids for the architects as well as a visualisation aid for standard PVT modules (PVT liquid, flat-plate) Develop a PVT module for the TRNSYS platform for standard PVT modules (PVT liquid, flat-plate) System optimisation with full physical models. Develop PVT design tools for non-standard PVT modules (PVT concentrator, PVT air)
medium term R&D institutes PVT manufacturers, engineering companies, architects long term
R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers, System optimisation with full physical models for non-standard engineering companies, architects PVT modules.
Table 24. PVT design tool development scheme.
Combining PVT with PV or thermal collectors on a single roof or faade. The thermal side of the covered PVT collector will be used mostly for domestic hot water. Another application is a so-called combi system, which delivers a large part of the hot water demand and a small part of the space heating demand. For both applications, the required PVT area is limited by the heat demand of the house. This is a big difference between thermal solar systems and grid connected solar PV systems, since the PV area on a building is only limited by the available roof and facade area. To optimise a solar system it might be necessary to combine PVT with standard PV in a single plane. Therefore, roof-mounting techniques have to be developed in which PVT and PV can be combined in any ratio and in any shape. In addition, the combination of PV and PVT should also have an aesthetic appearance. There are differences between the two that hamper an aesthetic appearance. The PVT collector is thicker than the PV module and (because of the glass cover above the PV) the impression of shine and colour is different. The simplest solution is to develop PVT dummies. These have the same
appearance as PVT collectors but produce only electricity. Of course PVT dummies are more expensive than standard PV laminates, so this is not the optimal solution. On the longer term, aesthetically matched roofing systems for PV and PVT should be developed. This can even be a contrasting match in which the differences are highlighted but are forming aesthetically a good combination. Finally, simulation tools have to be developed for the dimensioning of solar systems in which PV-modules, thermal collector modules and PVT modules can be combined to fulfill the requirements of the building in the best way. A similar problem appears when PVT air systems for space heating are extended to providing solar cooling as well. Since solar cooling requires higher temperature levels than most PVT air collectors will be able to provide, the PVT collector array is often combined with an array of conventional solar air collectors to boost the temperature level. For the commercialisation of such systems, it is important to develop standardised and aesthetically matched roofing and faade systems for PVT combined with solar thermal.
relevance
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short term PVT manufacturers Develop dummy glazed PVT with only an electric production Develop unglazed PVT collectors, looking like standard PV. Develop simulation tools for the dimensioning of solar systems with combinations of PV-modules, thermal collectors and PVT-modules. medium term PVT manufacturers Develop aesthetically matched roofing systems for PV and PVT. This can even be a contrasting match in which the differences are highlighted but are forming aesthetically a good combination. Develop aesthetically matched roofing systems for solar thermal and ventilated PV or PVT air
Table 25. PVT & PV combined system development scheme.

long term
collectors for solar cooling applications. Develop roof mounting systems in which PV and PVT can easily be combined in varying ratios PVT manufacturers Develop complete integrated and aesthetically matched PV/PVT roofing systems.
relevance
Combining PVT with heat pumps PVT, and especially unglazed PVT, functions best at low temperature applications because of the relatively large heat loss and the negative effect of temperature on PV cell performance. An interesting low-temperature application is the combination of an unglazed PVT module with a heat pump. By using a heat pump, the low temperatures of the uncovered PVT collector can be used for higher temperature applications like space heating or domestic hot water. For such a system, a large storage will be required between the heat pump and the solar supply. Two options are either an ice storage (of about 2 m3) that could be placed in the attic (Spoorenberg & Traversari, 2003), or a ground storage, where a ground heat exchanger could be used for extracting energy from the soil during the winter and regenerating the soil during the summer (Bakker et al., 2005). However, the combination with a heat pump will also set additional demands. Due to the lower module temperatures, condensation may occur on the modules (front side and rear side), and even the formation of ice can occur on the PVT panel over longer periods. This has an influence on the electrical yield of the system. Of course, the formation
short term R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers
of ice can be prevented by keeping the PVT module above 0 oC, or reduced by introducing melting sequences over specific intervals in time. However, in both ways thermal energy is lost.
All interconnections and cabling must be resistant against ice over longer periods. On the long term it might be possible to develop nonstick coatings, which can prevent ice forming at the PVT surface. The influence of the more severe stress conditions in the PVT due to condensation and ice forming has to be studied. The advantage of increasing the temperature of the heat source with a PVT should be analysed in detail in order to confirm if the PVT is a good complement to a conventional heat pump system. An analysis should be made comparing PVT to other heat source concepts. Simulations should be done with different data (climate, house properties, comfort need, etc) concerning all regions of the future PVT market. Appropriate heat-pump technology working at elevated and more dynamically varying temperatures (compared to heat exchangers buried in the ground as a heat source for the heat pump) has to be developed.
Establish under what conditions PVT is suitable as additional component to a heat pump system. Set up field systems using available heat pump technology. Develop melting sequences. Develop module temperature control to prevent freezing. Development of appropriate heat-pump technology Development of uncovered PVT modules that withstand condensation and icing conditions Develop non-stick coatings to prevent ice forming on the PVT module.
medium term
R&D institutes, PVT manufacturers
Table 26. PVT with heat pump development scheme.
long term
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Combining PVT with solar cooling Special PVT topics are the integration with a single or double effect sorption cooling system. Whereas a single effect sorption system can reach a COP (Coefficient of Performance) of around 0.7 at driving temperatures of around 70 to 90 oC, double effect sorption chillers can reach a COP of around 1.3 at temperatures of around 130 to 150 oC. The higher COP of double effect is very attractive, but the solar cells and thermal absorber must be able to withstand temperatures of about 150 to 200 oC. Because of the relatively high temperatures, solar cooling can best be provided by concentrating PVT, due to the lower thermal losses at high temperatures for this technique. There are two possible development routes: Low concentration (mostly smaller than 3) for areas in which beam as well as diffuse insolation should be collected. This system is mostly placed in a fixed orientation. High concentration for areas in which only beam insolation should be collected. These systems are mostly tracking the sun over one or two axes. Solar cooling will probably be needed only part of the year, so it is interesting to combine solar cooling with hot tap water and possibly space heating. Although PVT concentrators are the best PVT candidate for providing the high temperature levels required for solar cooling directly, this is not the only consideration, since attention should also be paid to the optimisation of the system yield on an annual basis. From this perspective, it is an interesting option to extend a PVT air system, used for space heating during the winter, with the option of providing solar cooling during the summer. However, since such systems cannot directly provide the temperature level required by the solar cooling system, an additional booster system is required, e.g. in the form of conventional air collectors.
Photo: Joe Coventry - ANU
relevance
short term
Market analysis for solar cooling, including Southern countries Systems studies on PVT cooling System optimisation of ventilated PV or PVT air collectors with booster collectors for solar cooling Demonstrate combination of highly concentrating PVT with single effect cooling System optimisation of highly concentrating PVT with single effect cooling Develop aesthetically matched roofing systems for solar thermal and ventilated PV or PVT air collectors for solar cooling applications. Combination of highly concentrating PVT with double effect cooling
medium term
Table 27. PVT cooling development scheme (see also issues related to PVT concentrator development).
long term
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8. Conclusions
8. Conclusions
PVT has a large potential. PVT systems can be applied in a large share of the present solar thermal market, including domestic hot water systems, as argued in chapter 4. In addition, PVT can supply a significant contribution to the EU targets for the implementation of renewable energy, as argued in chapter 5. It should be concluded that PVT is a very promising technique that deserves efforts from target groups ranging from policy makers to installers. conventional solar thermal collectors, which will lower the performance during the heating season, especially for the short heating season experienced in low-energy buildings. Off-grid, niche markets may exist for recreational applications or desalination systems. For unglazed PVT liquid collectors, the main market is seen in the combination of this collector with a heat pump for space heating application. The main future markets would then be the domestic market, again because of the size of this market, and the tertiary market, because it is to be expected that the heat pump will become increasingly popular here due to the cooling it can provide. A smaller specific market is seen in PVT pool collectors. For glazed PVT air collectors, unglazed PVT air collectors and ventilated PV facades, the main market is seen in utility space heating. In addition, glazed PVT air collectors will have a niche market in domestic space heating combined with tap water heating through a heat exchanger. Although the domestic market is large, it is expected that this will be a niche market due to technical limitations of such systems and the difficult competition with liquid collectors. Finally, an interesting niche market exists for autonomous air collector systems for the ventilation of cottages. For concentrating systems, the main market is seen in large hot tap water systems for multifamily buildings or tertiary applications. A large niche market may be solar cooling in the utility market. In off-grid applications, a niche may exist for desalination systems.
Beaufortcourt - RES
Most promising system-market combinations

In this roadmap, an inventory has been made for the most promising markets for PVT: In the short term, specific actors in the building market may already be motivated to invest in PVT (e.g. real estate developers, housing associations, municipalities). Multi-family buildings (especially if owned by a housing association) may be an important early market, due to the limited roof area available, which promotes area efficient renewable energy applications. Furthermore, interesting niche markets may exist in off-grid applications and (public) pool heating. In the medium and long term, the most promising application for PVT systems seems to be domestic water heating and space heating. For space heating, it is especially true for advanced houses wanting to cover a large part of the energy needs with solar energy. Combination of a heat pump and PVT could be a promising concept. In the long term, professional application (industry, agriculture) and applications such as solar cooling will become interesting for PVT. The requirements of the different markets lead to different PVT systems: For glazed PVT liquid collectors, the main market is seen as the domestic hot water market, being by far the largest market segment as indicated in chapter 4. Interesting niche markets are seen in the tertiary market for applications such as homes for the elderly, hospitals and sports buildings. It is expected that these PVT systems will be less suitable for domestic heating, keeping in mind the reduced thermal efficiency as compared to
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8. Conclusions
Barriers to be overcome
A number of barriers were identified for PVT. An overview is given below.
barriers ... lack of certification ... and how to overcome them Dedicated PVT testing and reliability standards have to be made, taking into account PVT specific issues such as stagnation temperature resistance of the PV. An inventory has to be made, to find out how well PVT fits in with national energy regulations, building codes and regulations regarding installation, and bottlenecks should be removed. Financing schemes need to be set up, in order to help consumers finance the high initial cost of PVT. An inventory of existing subsidy schemes should point out if PVT fits in sufficiently well. For the future, dedicated PVT subsidies should be set up. Subsidies should be considered to facilitate training courses for installers and architects. In the short run, awareness should be raised on the level of policy makers and solar energy professionals, to facilitate the introduction of PVT. In the near future, this should be extended to decision makers (consumers, real estate developers, etc) in the form of targeted marketing campaigns. Thermal module efficiency should be improved and module- and installation costs should be reduced. For the reduction of the installation costs, the development of plug-and-play connections is important. Combination of PVT with heat pumps, combination of PVT with PV, combination of PVT with solar cooling. Design tools should be developed. Aesthetics should be improved. PVT modules should be developed that are sufficiently flexible in colour and size, as well as uniform in appearance. Design tools and prefab PVT building elements should be developed. Stagnation temperature resistance should be sufficiently high.
unknown legal status
lack of financing schemes
unclear subsidy schemes
lack of awareness
improved economics
optimised systems
building integration
Table 28. Barriers to PVT and how to remove them
improved reliability
Action plan
In the previous paragraphs a number of actions has been defined. In order to present these actions in the most effective way, the action plan below attributes these actions to the appropriate actors, indicating both benefits and challenges for the main actors involved. Manufacturers Benefits of PVT new and/or enlarged markets Challenges how can the production technologies of PV and solar thermal be integrated cost-effectively? how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into heating and electrical systems be accomplished? how can PVT modules be produced with sufficient variety in colour and shape? how can PVT be promoted effectively?
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Policy makers Benefits of PVT Renewable energy targets reached more efficiently and at an earlier time Challenges which market support mechanisms are most effective for PVT? how should PVT be included in the new energy efficient building regulations? how can research, development and demonstration of PVT be supported most effectively? R&D and Test institutes Benefits of PVT development requires innovative technological solutions Challenges what should the performance and reliability standards for PVT look like? which field tests should be carried out to support warranties?
8. Conclusions
which technological solutions can be found to increase the optical and thermal efficiency of PVT which technological solutions can be found to increase the long-term reliability of PVT?
what are the best system configurations for given climates and applications? which market surveys are required to support the commercialisation of PVT?
Architects Benefits of PVT new ways to integrate renewables into buildings less aesthetic problems with integration into the building envelope, since only one device needs to be integrated Challenges how can PVT (and other solar technologies) become an integral part of the building design? which new building concepts are now possible because of PVT? Energy consultancy and engineering companies Benefits of PVT innovative and high profile technology for demonstration projects Challenges what sort of design tools are needed by architects, installers and engineers? which new system concepts are now possible because of PVT?
Building industry Benefits of PVT high profile green product that may be used to promote the sale of core products increased energy performance of buildings reduced payback time compared to PV and solar thermal side-by-side. Challenges how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into the building construction be accomplished? how can prefab building elements be realised that facilitate installation of PVT? Installers Benefits of PVT reduced installation effort new or enlarged market Challenges how can plug-and-play integration of PVT into heating and electrical systems be accomplished? how can the three specialisms (roofing, heating and electrical installation) be combined? which targeted solar campaigns are necessary for PVT?
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References
References
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Brogren, M., Optical efficiency of Low-Concentrating Solar Energy Systems with Parabolic Reflectors, PhD thesis Uppsala University, 2004. Cartmell, B.P., Shankland, N.J., Fiala, D. and Hanby, V. (2004), A multi-operational ventilated photovoltaic and solar air collector; application, simulation and initial monitoring feedback, SE 76, pp. 45-53. Chow, T.T., Hand, J.W., Strachan, P.A. (2003), Building-integrated photovoltaic and thermal applications in a subtropical hotel building Applied Thermal Engineering 23, pp. 20352049. Chow TT, He W, Ji J. (2005), Hybrid photovoltaic-thermosyphon water heating system for residential application. SE. In Press [online March 2005]. Coventry, J. S. and Lovegrove, K. (2003), Development of an approach to compare the value of electrical and thermal output from a domestic PV/thermal system. SE 75, pp. 63-72. Coventry, J.S. (2005), Performance of a concentrating photovoltaic/thermal collector, SE 78, pp. 211-222. Eicker, U., Fox, V., Infield, D. and Mei, L., (2000), Heating and cooling potential of combined photovoltaic-solar air collector facades, 16th EPSEC, Glasgow, UK, pp 1836-1839. Eicker, U. (2003), Solar technologies for buildings, Wiley. EPIA (2004), EPIA roadmap ESTIF (2003), Sun in Action II - A solar thermal strategy for Europe. Frankl, P., Gamberale, M., Battisti, R. (2000), Life cycle assesment of a PV cogenerative system: comparison with a solar thernal collector and a PV system, 16th EPSEC Glasgow. Gajbert, H., Brogren, M, Karlsson, B. (2003), Optimisation of reflector and module geometries for stationary, low-concentrating, faade-integrated photovoltaic systems, ISES Solar World Congress 2003, Goteborg.
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Gasner, S., Wen, L. (1982), Evaluation of unglazed flat-plate photovoltaic-thermal collectors in residential heat-pump applications ASME Conference Albuquerque. Hegazy, A.A., (2000), Comparative study of the performances of four photovoltaic/thermal solar air collectors Energy Convers. Mgmt. Vol.41, pp 861-881. Helgesson, A., Krohn, P., Karlsson, B. (2004), Development of a MaReCo-Hybrid for Hammarby Sjstad, Stockholm, Eurosun 2004, Freiburg. Hodge, E., Gibbons, C. (2004), Convective Cooling of Photovoltaics, Eurosun 2004, Freiburg. IEA task 1 report 2002. Infield, D., Mei, L., Eicker, U. (2004), Thermal performance estimation for ventilated PV facades, SE 76, pp. 93-98. Ito, S., Matsubayashi, T., Miura, N. (2004), Studies of a heat pump using dual heat sources of solar heat and ambient air, Eurosun 2004 Freiburg. Jger-Waldau et al (2004), PVNET European roadmap for PV R&D. Ji, J., Chow, TT., He, W. (2003), Dynamic performance of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal collector wall in Hong Kong. Building and Environment, Vol. 38(11), 1327-1334. Kelly, N. and Strachan, P.A. (2000), Modelling enhanced performance of building integrated PV modules, 16th EPSEC, Glasgow, UK. Krauter, S.C.W. (2004), Development of an integrated solar home system, Solar Materials & Solar cells 82, pp. 119-130. Leenders, F., Schaap, A.B., Jansen, W., Ree, B.G.C. van der, Oldengarm, H., Zondag, H.A., Helden, W.G.J. van (1999), Technologieverkenning hybride PV/T concepten, Novem report 149.600-708.1. Mei, L., Infield, D., Eicker, U., Fux, V. (2003),
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Thermal modelling of a building with an integrated ventilated faade, Energy and Buildings 35 pp. 605-617. Meyer, S. (2001), Wirkung eines hybriden Doppelfassadensystems auf die Energiebilanz und das Raumklima der dahinterliegenden Raume, PhD report. Nishikawa, Sone, Ito (1993), A heat pump using solar hybrid panels as the evaporator, ISES Solar World Congress Budapest. Othman, M.Y.Hj, Yatim, B., Sopian, K., Abu Bakar, M.N. (2005), Performance analysis of a double-pass photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) solar collector with CPC and fins, Renewable Energy 30, pp. 2005-2017. Photon International, June 2004. The delay, p36-42. Photon International, January 2005, When will the good times end by Rogol and Doi, p. 36-40. Platz, R., Fischer, D., Zufferey, M.A., Anna Selvan, J.A., Haller, A., Shah, A. (1997), Hybrid collectors using thin-film technology, 26th PVSC Anaheim, CA. Posnansky, M., Gnos,S., Coonen, S. (1994) The importance of hybrid PV-building integration, 1st WCPEC Hawaii. Photovoltaic/thermal Solar Energy Systems, report IEA PVPS T7-10 (available at www.pvt.org). Pol, M. van der, Wattimena, L.A. (2001), Onderzoek naar het potentieel van zonthermische energie in de industrie, KWA report. PV-Hybrid PAS (2000), final report. Ree, B. van der, Linden, Van der, en Heel, Van, (1996) Tests aan prototype onafgedekte PV/ Thermische collector, TNO Rapport 95-BBIR1666. Rosell, J.I., Vallverd, X., Lechn, M.A. and Ibez, M. (2005), Design and simulation of a low concentrating photovoltaic/thermal sys-
tem, Energy Convers. Mgmt. Vol. 46, pp. 3034-3046. Sandberg, M., Mosfegh, B. (1998), Ventilatedsolar roof air flow and heat transfer investigation RE 15(1), pp 287-292. Sandnes, B. and Rekstad, J. (2002) A photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) collector with a polymer absorber plate. Experimental study and analytical model. SE Vol. 72 (1), pp. 63 73. Santbergen, R. and Zolingen, R.J.C. van (2005), Modeling the thermal absorbtion factor of photovoltaic/thermal combi-panels, 2005. Heat SET april 2005, Grenoble, France. Soerensen, H., Munro, D. (2000), Hybrid PV/ Thermal collectors, 2nd WSEBC Sydney. Sopian, K., Liu, H.T. and Kaka, S. (1997), Research and development of hybrid photovoltaic thermal solar air heaters, Int. J. of Global Energy Issues 9, pp. 382-392. Spoorenberg, H.H.R., Traversari, A.A.L. (2003), Effectieve combinaties van actieve zonneenergie en warmtepompen, TNO report 2003DEG-R. Strachan, P.A., Johnstone, C.M., Kelly, N., Bloem, J.J., Ossenbrink, H. (1997), Results of thermal and power modelling of the PV facade on the ELSA building, Ispra, 14th EPSEC, Barcelona, Spain. Sudhakar, S.V., Sharon, M. (1994) Fabrication and performance evaluation of a photovoltaic/ thermal hybrid system, SESI Journal 4(1), pp. 1-7. Swanson, R.M. (2000), The Promise of Concentrators, Progress in Photovoltaics, vol 8, pp. 93-111. Tripanagnostopoulos, Y., Nousia, Th, Souliotis, M. (2001), Test results of air cooled modified PV modules, 17th EPSEC (2001), Munich. Tripanagnostopoulos, Y., Nousia, Th., Souliotis, M. and Yianoulis, P. (2002), Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal solar systems, SE 72, pp. 217-234.
Tripanagnostopoulos, Y., Souliotis, M., Battisti, R., Corrado, A. (2005), Energy. cost and LCA results of PV and hybrid PV/T solar systems, Progress in Photovoltaics 13, pp. 235-250. Vries, D.W. de (1998), Design of a photovoltaic/thermal combi-panel, 1998, PhD thesis EUT. Warmerdam, J.M., Zegers, F.T.S, Voskens, R.G.J.H. (2001), Overzicht potentieel thermische zonne-energie 2010, Ecofys report. Warmerdam, J.M. (2002), Bijdrage thermische zonne-energie 2002, Ecofys report EEP020111.2. Weiss, W., Bergmann, I., Faniger, G. (2006), Solar heat Worldwide - Markets and contribution to the Energy Supply 2004, report IEA SHC. Wouters, P., Demeester, J., Martin, S., Vandaele, L. (1997) Market potential for industrial hybrid photovoltaic applications in buildings, 14th EPSEC Barcelona. Zondag, H.A., Jong, M.J.M, Helden, W.G.J. van (2001), Development and applications for PV thermal, 17th EPSEC, Munich. Zondag, H.A., Vries, D.W. de, Helden, W.G.J. van, Zolingen, R.J.C. van, Steenhoven, A.A. van (2002), The thermal and electrical yield of a PV-Thermal collector, SE 72(2), pp. 113-128. Zondag, H.A., Vries, D.W. de, Helden, W.G.J. van, Zolingen, R.J.C. van, Steenhoven, A.A. van (2003), The yield of different combined PV-thermal collector designs, SE 74, pp. 253269. Zondag, H.A., Helden, W.G.J. van (2002), Stagnation temperature in PVT collectors, PV in Europe, Rome.
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Glossary
Glossary
Exergy The amount of energy that can be transferred to work and is not converted to entropy. Heat pump A device that can bring heat from a low temperature level up to a high temperature level (e.g. a fridge). A heat pump needs external power to function (electricity or heat). Heating season The part of the year in which heating is required. This depends on climate and building type. Hot spot The fact that a non-functioning PV cell heats up due to dissipation of the power of the other cells in the string. ICS Integrated collector storage; a system in which the collector and the storage tank are integrated into one device. Mismatch loss Solar cells operating under diferent illunination or temperature will have different power curves. When connected in series or in parallel this leads to reduced total efficiency, known as mismatch loss. Season factor If the thermal PVT yield is only harvested part of the year (e.g. a swimming pool that is only used during the summer), the annual yield of the collector can be determined by means of a season factor, which is defined as the irradiation over the period of use, divided by the irradiation over the whole year. Stagnation temperature The absorber temperature that is reached if heat is not actively withdrawn from the collector (e.g. due to pump failure or full storage). Typical stagnation temperatures for unglazed PVT may be as high as 80 C, whereas typical stagnation temperatures for glazed PVT may be as high as 130 C. Spectral selectivity The phenomenon that the absorption is high in the solar part of the spectrum and low in the thermal part. Because the thermal absorption is low, so is the thermal emission, which limits the radiative losses. PVT collectors are typically not spectrally selective, unlike conventional thermal collectors. This results in higher radiative losses for PVT. Solar fraction The ratio of used renewable energy over total used energy. Staebler-Wronski effect Light-induced degeneration of the efficiency of amorphous silicon. TPV Thermo-photovoltaics: devices for the conversion of thermal radiation into electricity. Although the name is similar, PVT and TPV are fundamentally different types of devices.
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Overview PVT products IEA SHC task 35

Table 29. PVT Commercial standard products. (Source: IEA SHC task 35)
The matrices of PVT manufacturers and PVT products presented below are part of the Photovoltaic/thermal Solar Energy Systems, report IEA
PVPS T7-10 and updated as part of IEA task 35 on PV/Thermal Solar System. For more information see www.iea-shc.org/task35
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Overview PVT products IEA PVPS T7
Table 30. PVT product research overview. (Source: IEA SHC task 35)
Figure 21. (a) Powerlight (PowerTherm), (b) Cythelia (Capthel collector; photo: Alain Ricaud), (c) Solar Focus (TERC) (a) b) (c)
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Table 31. Overview of PVT products for specific projects (Source: IEA SHC task 35)
Figure 22. (a) TFM (Mataro library), (b) Atlantis Energy (Scheidegger building), (c) Atlantis Energy (Aerni factory), (d) Esbensen Consulting Engineers (Yellow house), (e) Australian National University (Bruce Hall), (f) Crowder College (Solar Decathlon 2002 house). (d) (e) (f) (a) b) (c)
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Table 32. PVT contact information (source: IEA
For more information, see also the PVT platform at the ECN website (www.ecn.nl).
SHC task 35).
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This roadmap was developed as part of the EU-supported Coordination Action PV-Catapult

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PVT ROADMAP

The 6th Framework Programme

PVT concepts: (a) PVT-liquid (b) PVT-air

Photo: Grammer Solar

Photo: Atlantis Energy

General introduction of PVT

Figure 4. Roadmap chapter overview

2. Overview of modules and systems

2. Overview of modules and systems

Figure 6. Classification of PVT systems according to thermal demand

2. Overview of modules and systems

Jerusalem Athens Vienna Amsterdam Stockholm

2. Overview of modules and systems

Table 2. Examples of systems, with typical yield

Markets offices residences offices

residences, apartment buildings, hospitals etc

450550 400450 200300 150250

pool heating outdoor (25-50C)

550650 550650 350400

9001000 9001000 700750

2. Overview of modules and systems

PVT liquid collector

unglazed module (ECN)

glazed module (PVTwins)

PVT air collector

unglazed module (Grammer Solar)

glazed module (Aidt Milj)

Ventilated PV with heat recovery

facade system (TFM)

roof system (TFM)

stationary module (Vattenfall)

tracking module (ANU)

2. Overview of modules and systems

Table 4. Relation between type of collector and type of demand.

2. Overview of modules and systems

Table 6. Power temperature coefficients of different PV techniques.

2. Overview of modules and systems

2. Overview of modules and systems

2. Overview of modules and systems

Autonomous developments in solar-thermal and PV

2. Overview of modules and systems

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

Principal products and systems on the market

Figure 9. (a) Power roll by

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

Present state of certification

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

3. Present state of PVT market, certification and R&D

4. Potential markets for PVT

4. Potential markets for PVT

Principal segmentation of present potential PVT market

4. Potential markets for PVT

Changes in the market

Figure 16. Main terrestrial PV market segments (source: EPIA Roadmap)

4. Potential markets for PVT

4. Potential markets for PVT

4. Potential markets for PVT

4. Potential markets for PVT