Building Integrated Photovoltaics 4.0: Digitization of the Photovoltaic Integration in Buildings for a Resilient Infra at Large Scale

Abstract

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems have gained a lot of attention in recent years as they support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals of renewable energy generation and construction of resilient infrastructure. To make the BIPV system infra resilient, there is a need to adopt digital technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and robotics. In this study, the current challenges in the BIPV system, such as the rise in the temperature of the PV modules, the occurrence of various faults, and the accumulation of dust particles over the module surface, have been identified and discussed based on the previous literature. To overcome the challenges, the significance and application of the integration of these digital technologies in the BIPV system are discussed along with the proposed architecture. Finally, the study discusses the vital recommendations for future directions, such as ML and DL for image enhancement and flaws detection in real-time image data; edge computing to implement DL for intelligent BIPV data analytics; fog computing for 6G assisted IoT network in BIPV; edge computing integration in UAV for intelligent automation and detection; augmented reality, virtual reality, and digital twins for virtual BIPV systems with research challenges of real-time implementation in the BIPV.