Integrating Photovoltaics and Sun Blinds for Smart Shading Systems

For a mountainous country in which the exposed areas are mainly used for agriculture, there is a tendency to install PV systems on the buildings. In 2014, in Austria this share was 87.5%. The trend towards PV is accelerated by the plan to use only renewable energies for the electricity mix in Austria by 2030. For this, it is necessary to expand PV as a key technology and to make new installation options accessible. In this context, the PowerShade project investigates efficient, cost-effective, reliable, and universally applicable power-generating shading solutions. It integrates PV into commercially available sun protection systems. The challenging integration requires flexible, lightweight, robust, and economic applications while providing specific performance, durability, and optical appearance requirements. In this paper we present the first prototype results that generate still less than silicon-based applications. Furthermore, we demonstrate that regardless of potential improvement, the current state of the art still has technological gaps and economic barriers.