Establishing a typical solar radiation year time series for the application of building integrated photovoltaic systems in Taiwan

Photovoltaic modules are increasingly being utilized in building envelopes for green energy generation purposes. While photovoltaic modules are integrated into building envelope design, the modules will not often be facing south and are frequently mounted vertically. The radiation efficiency of photovoltaic modules is important to the optimization of Building Intergraded Photovoltaic Systems (BiPV). The energy generation efficiency of BiPV system relies much on the panel surface solar radiation received. It is important for architects to estimate the annual energy generated by their BiPV design schemes. The purpose of this paper is to develop a typical hourly solar radiation year to facilitate the estimation process. The typical solar radiation year should be subject to local long-term climate variations, thus, ten years´ hourly meteorological data was gathered to formulate a typical year by means of a series of statistical processes. A total of three cities´ typical hourly years from northern to southern Taiwan were established in this paper. Furthermore, a software tool for calculating cumulative yearly generated energy on every panel inclinations and orientations of BiPV modules was also developed to help building designers facilitate the evaluation and optimization of the BiPV system.