1. Context and BIPV Concept

The building sector accounts for over 40% of the European total primary energy use and 24% of greenhouse gas emissions (OECD/IEA and AFD, Promoting energy efficiency investments, 2008, [1], IEA, Task 40—towards net zero energy solar buildings, 2009, [2]). A combination of making buildings more energy efficient and using a larger fraction of renewable energy is, therefore, a key issue to reduce the non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. It is an important objective of energy policy and strategy in Europe and Italy. In this context, the photovoltaic sector has seen a great development in the past few years, also thanks to incentive schemes. The PV technology can play a key role in terms of building self-production of electric energy, with a high ‘integration’ potential into the building envelope. A Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) element, by definition, becomes part of the building structure as it is integrated into the envelope, even used in substitution of traditional building components. In this chapter, we define our BIPV concept.