BIPVBOOST H2020 project launched

PIZ is part of the consortium partners

BIPVBOOST is a new Innovation Action at European level, funded under the Horizon 2020 programme. The project has been launched in October 2018, with a kick-off meeting held by TECNALIA in its facilities in Bilbao (Spain), on October 4th-5th. The meeting gathered the 19 partners forming the consortium and served as starting point for the BIPVBOOST project.

The overall ambition of the BIPVBOOST project focuses on bringing down costs of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions and processes along the value chain, enabling the compliance with the main market requirements and contributing to a widespread implementation in nZEBs.

The premise of the project is that BIPV market uptake has been hindered in the past years by the difficulties of the industry in providing holistic solutions complying with key demands from the market, such as aesthetics, flexibility of design and cost-effectiveness. In this sense, a joint industrial effort is crucial to conceive and develop highly-efficient and multifunctional energy producing construction materials that enable boosting market opportunities at a world-wide level for the European photovoltaic and construction industry value chains.

BIPVBOOST will address these challenges by implementing short- and medium-term cost reduction roadmaps along the BIPV value chain:

• Flexible and automated BIPV manufacturing process

• Large portfolio of multifunctional BIPV products

• Digitalized process and energy management system along the value chain

• Advanced standardization activities supporting the qualification of BIPV systems for a massive implementation in the building skin.

Led by TECNALIA, BIPVBOOST will be implemented by a multidisciplinary team of 19 partners from 7 European countries involving industrial and research partners. Owners of the four demonstration buildings (PIZ, Mondragón Assembly, ISFOC, OPTIMAL Computing) have been chosen attending to criteria of geographical distribution, building types and use, possibilities for market replication and capability to support the related project activities. The industrial partners (15 out of 19) cover the BIPV industrial value chain, including architects (VIRIDEN), BIPV equipment manufacturers (Mondragón Assembly), BIPV module manufacturers (ONYX, FLISOM), roof and façade manufacturers (TULIPPS, PIZ, SCHWEIZER), general contractors (COMSA), software developers (EnerBIM, OPTIMAL) and experts in building energy management systems (3E). Additionally, experts in PV/BIPV market, business models and policies (ICARES Consulting), dissemination and communication (WIP) and life cycle analysis (CYCLECO) provide a highly relevant expertise in their fields. Finally, 4 research organizations (TECNALIA, SUPSI, EURAC and CSTB) constitute a core support for technical activities.

At least 17 demonstrated innovative solutions will result from the successful implementation of the BIPVBOOST project. Together with the large involvement from industrial partners in the consortium, a sound basis will be to pursuit a 50% reduction of additional cost of BIPV modules in 2020 and 75% reduction in 2030, and thus a substantial increase of market deployment of BIPV technology.

Technical information:

- GA Number: 817991

- Duration: 48 months

- Start Date: 01 Oct 2018

- Estimated Project Cost: €11,434,538.75

- Requested EU Contribution: €8,844,070.14