An integrated design platform for BIPV system considering building information

In the current practice, in order to meet the design concerns from multiple disciplines Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) design normally involves multiple but isolated design processes. Each process needs to maintain a fraction set of, sometimes inconsistent models of, the whole BIPV. As a result of the isolation, the seamless integration, one of the prime goals of BIPV software design, becomes very difficult to be achieved. This paper presents a software platform regarding BIPV design and analysis by expanding Building Information Modelling (BIM) with the domain-specific models regarding photovoltaic systems, The resulting software platform, i.e. Extended Building Information Model, allows BIPV, in the planning phase, to be designed with the support of an uniform model and avoids the needs to maintain the different models across the different design stages of BIPV. The designed platform provides the analysis modules when integrating photovoltaic system into building construction: shadow and radiation analysis and electrical power analysis. A practical case application is employed to testify this platform.