Feasibility of vertical photovoltaic system on high-rise building in Malaysia: performance evaluation

Photovoltaic (PV) facade, an envelope of the building in an urban area, can potentially produce clean electricity to meet the energy demand of the buildings and also provides protection from weather. This paper focuses on the application of PV technology on vertical facade of the building which is considered as an element of building-integrated PV. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility with regard to performance evaluation of PV vertical facade based on the built-up model of a high-rise building in Malaysia using system advisor model. The best four vertical facade orientations for PV application in climatic condition of Malaysia are east, west, southeast and southwest as these facades received the highest incident irradiance. Based on the typical high-rise office building in Malaysia, the energy generated through the vertical PV system is between 400 and 700 MWh, whereas the energy generated by the roof system is ~240 MWh annually.