Title:	Fire Performance Assessment of BIPV Facades Equipped with Active Rapid Shutdown
Author(s):	F. Parolini, P. Bonomo, F. Frontini, M. Caccivio, G. Manzini, G. Traina, P. Cancelliere
Topic:	PV Applications and Integration
Subtopic:	PV on/in Buildings, Infrastructure, Landscape, Water and Nature
Event:	37th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
Session:	6CV.2.22
Pages:	1931 - 1936
ISBN:	3-936338-73-6
Paper DOI:	10.4229/EUPVSEC20202020-6CV.2.22
Price:	0,00 EUR
Document(s):	paper, poster

Abstract/Summary:

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The debate on climate change is mobilizing research and innovation across all policy areas in EU. The European Green Deal is the roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable. This will happen by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities for a EU Green Deal, accomplishing the growing interest of public opinion in a tangible diffusion of sustainable policies and renewable energies. Solar Photovoltaics (PV) has evolved dramatically to become the most affordable clean energy technology with impressive potentials. The built environment remains a strategic domain in view of the goal of full decarbonisation by 2050, so that Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is emerging more and more as the opportunity to exploit the surface area available on buildings for power generation and also with strong market prospects. New multifunctional products that can be perfectly integrated into the skin of the buildings (i.e. façades, roofs) are emerging as extremely versatile materials, with multifunctional properties and benefits for solar constructions to realize nearly-zero or plus-energy buildings. However, in addition to the aforementioned advantages, the aspects related to safety are relevant since integrating PV in buildings requires an accurate performance assessment in accordance with construction norms and PV standards. This became evident when, as a result of PV market spread, also an increase of cases of fire was registered, highlighting the need of implementing a proper fire prevention policy including protection systems, especially in cases of PV interaction with the building skin. Fire safety is a topic of primary interest for BIPV systems, in order to guarantee a proper level of safety and reliability during the building life cycle which, in turn, calls into question the need to investigate innovative technologies and approaches to protect the buildings such as rapid shutdown systems. This paper resumes the first part of a research carried out by the authors aimed at developing and set up first test protocols focused on the fire behaviour assessment for electrically active BIPV façade system. Object of investigation are facades equipped with systems capable of a fast electrical potential minimization mainly oriented to ensure the safety of maintenance and, in case of fire, safety of rescue personnel as well as the reduction of fire spread.