The global BIPV market including BAPV will grow five-fold, from just over 400MW in 2012 to 2,250MW in 2017, Pike Research predicts. 

The global BIPV market is set to grow to US$7.5 billion by 2015 from the current figure of US$2.1 billion, NanoMarkets predicts. The analyst firm added that the BIPV market will gain market share mostly at the expense of conventional solar panels as end users begin to take note of the better economics and aesthetics of BIPV. 

Speaking at the Smart Solutions Forum, a parallel event at the 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition being held this week, Laura Maturi, a researcher at EURAC, stated that several challenges still face architects when designing BIPV buildings, one of which is the lack of tools available to help architects. 

On August 31, 500 students from around the world were getting their hands and knees dirty as they started to build their own solar-powered houses in Madrid, Spain, as part of this year’s international competition Solar Decathlon Europe. This first assembly phase will run from August 31-September 12 whilst the main event runs from September 13-28 with results announced on September 30.  

According to a new report published by Pike Research, global sales of BIPV and building applied photovoltaics (BAPV) are predicted to quadruple over the next five years, from US$606 million in 2012 to over US$2.4 billion in 2017. 

NanoMarkets has announced that it will publish two new reports in May, following its recent  DSC and BIPV glass markets reports. The research firm will publish "Opportunities in the Organic Photovoltaics Market 2012" and "BIPV Encapsulation Markets 2012" next month, which will conclude with eight-year forecasts of the OPV and BIPV encapsulation markts.

Pythagoras Solar has announced its collaboration with Guardian to produce a BIPV glass product with wide application potential.
According to NanoMarkets’ BIPV glass markets 2012 report, demand for BIPV glass will rise as it is a transparent product, easy to integrate in a wide variety of architectural structures and the BIPV glass market is expected to reach US$6.4 million in revenues by 2016. Its use varies from skylights to curtain walls and shade structures. Pythagoras’ SunGuard PVGU is designed to make PV glass more accessible and usable for architects in commercial applications.

Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 (SDE2012) has selected the 20 participating teams in next year’s solar house competition. With universities from 15 countries and four continents, SDE2012 will be the most international edition to date.