Building integrated Photovoltaics

In terms of rising energy costs and limited fossil fuels the solar energy becomes more and more important. In the last years a change of applications was visible: From energy plants on fields and grasslands only for producing energy to the so called BIPV (building integrated Photovoltaic). Here the PV acts not only for producing energy: Other purposes are e.g. acting as building envelope and/or acting as architectural element. In this paper the basics of PV are shortly presented. Other important points are the aspects of safety e.g. for overhead glazing and large façade systems with PV and aspects of static analysis. Finally some examples of BIPV are presented.