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Building-integrated photovoltaics

Nature Reviews Clean Technology volume 1, pages 333–350 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) serves the dual purpose of fulfilling functional and architectural roles within buildings while generating electricity. However, the 10% photovoltaic (PV) market share in Switzerland could be an indication of the future relevance of BIPV in a global context, in which the gap is given by the shy presence of BIPV in most of the world with less than 1% of installed PV power. In this Review, we examine evolution and implementation of BIPV and the limitations and barriers to its broader adoption. BIPV is technologically mature and enables local electricity generation. Increasing aesthetics and reliability with decreasing cost and installation complexity can further improve the technology attractiveness. The mainstream PV market is dominated by increasingly efficient and cost-effective crystalline silicon solar modules. These trends make BIPV more economically viable — in Europe, the net present value of BIPV systems is positive — and influence uptake. The emergence of coloured solutions (such as coloured foils, digital ceramic printing or interferential coating) could enable a broader range of aesthetic designs. However, the fast BIPV implementation is limited by the remaining barriers as first lacks of awareness and expertise, then perceived risks and lately the gap in digitalization. Continued innovation, integration into building information modelling systems and recognition of BIPV as standard building components are essential for a widespread adoption.

Key points

  • Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) serves both functional and architectural roles while generating electricity. BIPV is technologically mature, offering local electricity generation with increasing aesthetics and reliability.

  • The net present value of BIPV systems is positive in Europe, making them economically viable. Continued innovation, integration into building information modelling systems and recognition as standard building components are essential for widespread adoption.

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Fig. 1: BIPV designs.
Fig. 2: Evolution of mainstream photovoltaic module designs.
Fig. 3: Coloured BIPV modules.
Fig. 4: BIPV performance, net present value and carbon footprint.
Fig. 5: BIPV market snapshot and barriers to BIPV adoption.

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Acknowledgements

This work has received funding from the European Union and from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under grant agreements 101096126 (SEAMLESS-PV), 101136094 (SPHINX project) and 101136112 (INCREASE project); the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund (RINGS-BIPV Project with reference PID2021-124910OB-C31). The authors acknowledge the BIPV team of SUPSI for making the 3D image. ChatGPT (OpenAI, January 2025 version, large language model, retrieved from https://chat.openai.com/) was used to find synonyms and to do some rephrasing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Antonin Faes, Hugo Quest & Christophe Ballif

  2. Sustainable Energy Center, CSEM, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Antonin Faes, Alessandro Virtuani & Christophe Ballif

  3. Officina del Sole srl, Milan, Italy

    Alessandro Virtuani

  4. Eurac Research, Institute for Renewable Energy, Bolzano, Italy

    Laura Maturi

  5. Energy Technologies and Renewables Department, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Portici, Italy

    Alessandra Scognamiglio

  6. Dipartimento Ambiente Costruzione e Design (DACD), University of Applied Science and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Mendrisio, Switzerland

    Francesco Frontini

  7. Institute of Technology in Architecture, ETH Zürich, Switzerland

    Arno Schlueter

  8. Photovoltaic Unit, CIEMAT, Madrid, Spain

    Nuria Martin-Chivelet

  9. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Angèle Reinders

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Contributions

A.F.: conceptualization, visualization, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; A.V.: conceptualization, visualization, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; H.Q.: visualization, figure preparation, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; A.R.: conceptualization, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; A. Schlueter: conceptualization, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; F.F.: conceptualization, writing original draft, writing — review and editing; A. Scognamiglio: conceptualization, writing original draft; L.M.: conceptualization, writing original draft; N.M.-C.: conceptualization, writing original draft; C.B.: conceptualization, writing original draft.

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Correspondence to Antonin Faes.

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Glossary

Amorphous silicon

Non-crystalline form of silicon used in thin-film photovoltaic cells.

Balance of system

All the components other than photovoltaic modules in a photovoltaic system, such as inverters, wiring and mounting systems.

Building-applied photovoltaics

(BAPV). Photovoltaic systems installed onto existing buildings without being integrated into the building structure.

Building information modelling

(BIM). Process of creating and managing digital models of buildings and infrastructure to support design, construction and operation decisions.

Building-integrated photovoltaics

(BIPV). Photovoltaic module that provides one or more of the functions of the building envelope.

Cadmium telluride

(CdTe). Semiconductor material used in thin-film solar cells.

Carbon intensity

(CI). The amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced per unit of energy of economic output.

Common Data Environment

Centralized digital platform used to store, manage and share project data among stakeholders.

Copper indium gallium selenide

(CIGS). Semiconductor material used in thin-film solar cells.

Crystalline-silicon

Silicon material with a well-ordered crystal structure, commonly used in conventional photovoltaic cells.

Digital ceramic printing

Printing technology that uses ceramic inks to create permanent, durable patterns or images on glass surfaces.

End of life

Final stage of the life cycle of a product when it is decommissioned, disposed of or recycled.

Life-cycle assessment

Systematic analysis of the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire life cycle.

Luminescent solar concentrators

(LSCs). Devices that use luminescent materials to capture and concentrate sunlight onto photovoltaic cells.

Net present value

(NPV). A financial metric that calculates the present value of future cash flows minus the initial investment.

Organic photovoltaics

Related to photovoltaic cells fabricated of organic materials being polymers and/or small molecules (thin-film type).

Perovskite solar cells

Type of solar cell that uses perovskite-structured materials as the light-harvesting active layer.

Silicon heterojunction

High-efficiency solar cell technology that combines crystalline silicon with thin layers of amorphous silicon to improve light absorption and reduce energy losses.

Technology readiness level

Systematic scale assessing the maturity of a technology.

Tunnel-oxide-passivated contact

n-type crystalline silicon solar cell technology using a thin oxide layer and doped polysilicon to reduce surface recombination losses and to enhance performance.

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Faes, A., Virtuani, A., Quest, H. et al. Building-integrated photovoltaics. Nat. Rev. Clean Technol. 1, 333–350 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00059-9

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