Demystifying the economic and energy potential of Building-Integrated Photovoltaics in achieving India's intended Nationally Determined Contribution

Abstract

Globalization and swift urbanisation have led to increased energy demand across buildings. India's contributions to environmental improvement are the most ambitious in current global development. The nationally determined contributions (NDCs) look at the country's policies and programmes promoting clean energy, enhancing energy efficiency, and developing resilient urban centers. It also captures citizens' and private sector contributions to combating climate change and abating pollution. Buildings account for 35–45% of global energy consumption, and their use is increasing at an 8% annual rate. To overcome the environmental problems caused by fossil fuels, there is a need to use renewable energy sources optimally to meet the energy requirements of buildings in smart cities. Limited rooftop space in an urban environment often falls short of catering to the entire energy demand of high-rise buildings. In this paper, the building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) module is considered a source of clean energy on the building's facade (vertical portion). Further, the NDCs of India are discussed, and the techno-economic analysis of BIPV modules has been performed and compared with the optimally placed rooftop PV module to explore the potential of BIPV in achieving India's NDCs.