Economic potential analysis of photovoltaic integrated shading strategies on commercial building facades in urban blocks: A case study of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are becoming a viable solution for clean on-site energy production and utilisation. In tropical climates, although rooftops are ideal for photovoltaic (PV) module integration, the available area may be insufficient to meet building energy demand due to the increase in high-rise urban buildings, causing a requirement for the utilisation of facades. However, the high solar elevation angle means that facades are unfavourably oriented towards receiving incident irradiation. Also, the issue exists of high solar heat gains into built spaces. This paper evaluates the utilisation of horizontally inclined PV integrated shading strategies to combat these issues based on the urban context of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Various strategies are evaluated in terms of their inclination angles and the distance between installations, and urban blocks in Colombo are analysed in terms of how they affect the solar potential in the urban canyon. The results are analysed in terms of economic potential to determine the optimised installation strategies based on urban block type. The results suggest that installations inclined at 30° at a distance-to-length ratio of 4 provide the greatest economic viability in this context.