Solar Technologies and the Building Envelope

Advances in on-site renewable energy technology have brought the concept of zero-energy buildings within reach.1 Many single-story residential and commercial buildings have enough favorably oriented roof area to make achieving zero energy technically feasible, assuming no major solar obstructions exist and that energy efficiency has been aggressively implemented in the building design. As the number of stories increases, the potential to have a zero-energy building within the buildings footprint decreases. As efficiencies of photovoltaic (PV) cells increase, the potential to have zero-energy buildings increases.

Citation: ASHRAE Journal, vol. 49, no. 4, April 2007



Product Code(s): D-AJ07Apr1