Active Interfaces

Holistic operational strategies crossing over obstacles for a large-scale qualitative integration of advanced BIPV into urban renewal processes.

This research project contributes to the Confederation’s new “Energy Strategy 2050” which requires 10 GW of photovoltaic (PV) energy. Through a holistic approach, the project proposes concrete strategies in order to overcome the obstacles to a broad quantitative and qualitative integration of buildings integrated photovoltaic systems (BIPV) during the urban renewal processes. Currently, despite technological and economic progress, only a small percentage of the solar electricity potential is exploited by BIPV systems (facade or roof elements).

The research project analyzes the various barriers which tend to limit the massive implementation of BIPV on the architectural and urban scales. It also proposes alternative solutions developed through holistic approaches linked to industrial production, constructive and legal constraints, architectural quality and socio-cultural aspects. From a sustainability perspective, the development of new adapted solutions takes into account diverse criteria (energy, comfort, LCA, costs, esthetics, costs of electricity and grid connection). The integration of test-applications carried out on representative sites, offers an attractive link between the development of industrial elements and the generation of operational knowledge directly integrated into new adapted solutions and design strategies.

Research Partners
Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST), PV-LAB, LIPID, CSEM, ISAAAC (SUPSI), CC EASE (HSLU), IBI (ETHZ), IWÖ (FHSG), IEnergy (EIA-FR), econcept AG.

Research Team LAST
Prof. Emmanuel Rey, Dr. Sophie Lufkin, Dr. Sergi Aguacil

Funding
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – National Research Program NRP 70


 

Website

 

Thesis

Urban planning support based on the photovoltaic potential of buildings: a multi-scenario ranking system

G. Peronato / M. Andersen; E. Rey (Dir.)  

Lausanne, EPFL, 2019. 

Architectural Design Strategies for Building-Integrated Photovoltaics in residential building renovation processes

S. Aguacil Moreno / E. Rey (Dir.)  

Lausanne, EPFL, 2019. 

Main publications

A stable loosely-coupled scheme for cardiac electro-fluid-structure interaction

M. Bucelli; M. G. Gabriel; A. Quarteroni; G. Gigante; C. Vergara 

Journal Of Computational Physics. 2023. Vol. 490, p. 112326. DOI : 10.1016/j.jcp.2023.112326.

Molecular scale description of interfacial mass transfer in phase separated aqueous secondary organic aerosol

M. Lbadaoui-Darvas; S. Takahama; A. Nenes 

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 2021. Vol. 21, num. 23, p. 17687 – 17714. DOI : 10.5194/acp-21-17687-2021.

Accelerating the Design of Photocatalytic Surfaces for Antimicrobial Application: Machine Learning Based on a Sparse Dataset

H. Park; E. T. Bentria; S. Rtimi; A. Arredouani; H. Bensmail et al. 

Catalysts. 2021. Vol. 11, num. 8, p. 1001. DOI : 10.3390/catal11081001.

Characterizing the Reserve Provision Capability Area of Active Distribution Networks: A Linear Robust Optimization Method

M. Kalantar Neyestanaki; F. Sossan; M. Bozorg; R. Cherkaoui 

IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid. 2021. Vol. 11, num. 3, p. 2464 – 2475. DOI : 10.1109/TSG.2019.2956152.

Phonon-Ion Interactions: Designing Ion Mobility Based on Lattice Dynamics

S. Muy; R. Schlem; Y. Shao-Horn; W. G. Zeier 

Advanced Energy Materials. 2021.  p. 2002787. DOI : 10.1002/aenm.202002787.

Exploring the Robustness of Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Renovation Scenarios to Climate Change Perspectives: Results for a multi-family building in the Swiss context

S. Aguacil Moreno; É. Nault; E. Rey 

2020. 35th Passive and Low Energy Architecture PLEA 2020 Conference, La Coruña, Galicia, Spain, September 1-3, 2020. p. 1233 – 1238. DOI : 10.17979/spudc/9788497497947.

Characterization of multi-channel intraneural stimulation in transradial amputees

I. Strauss; G. Valle; F. Artoni; E. D’Anna; G. Granata et al. 

Scientific Reports. 2019. Vol. 9, p. 19258. DOI : 10.1038/s41598-019-55591-z.

Active surfaces selection method for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) in renovation projects based on self-consumption and self-sufficiency

S. Aguacil Moreno; S. Lufkin; E. Rey 

Energy & Buildings. 2019. Vol. 193, p. 15 – 28. DOI : 10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.03.035.

Influence of design‐decisions on the energy performance of renovation projects with building‐integrated photovoltaics: Results for a 1968 residential archetype in Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

S. Aguacil Moreno; S. Lufkin; E. Rey 

2018. PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy Within the Two-Degree Limit, Hong-Kong, China, December 10-12, 2018. p. 598 – 603.

Assessing the photovoltaic potential of flat roofs: Insights from the analysis of optimised array arrangements

G. Peronato; S. Aguacil Moreno; A. Legrain; E. Rey; M. Andersen 

2018. PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy Within the Two-Degree Limit, Hong-Kong, China, December 10-12, 2018. p. 1032 – 1033.

Assessment of the Building‐Integrated Photovoltaic potential in urban renewal processes in the Swiss context: Complementarity of urban‐ and architectural‐scale analyses

S. Aguacil Moreno; G. Peronato; M. Andersen; E. Rey 

2018. PLEA 2018: Smart and Healthy Within the Two-Degree Limit, Hong-Kong, China, December 10-12, 2018. p. 347 – 352.

3D model discretization in assessing urban solar potential: the effect of grid spacing on predicted solar irradiation

G. Peronato; E. Rey; M. Andersen 

Solar Energy. 2018. Vol. 176, p. 334 – 349. DOI : 10.1016/j.solener.2018.10.011.

A toolkit for multi-scale mapping of the solar energy-generation potential of buildings in urban environments under uncertainty

G. Peronato; P. Rastogi; E. Rey; M. Andersen 

Solar Energy. 2018. Vol. 173, p. 861 – 874. DOI : 10.1016/j.solener.2018.08.017.

ACTIVE INTERFACES. From 3D geodata to BIPV yield estimation: towards an urban-scale simulation workflow

G. Peronato 

15. Nationale Photovoltaik-Tagung 2017, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 23-24, 2017.

Integrating urban energy simulation in a parametric environment: a Grasshopper interface for CitySim

G. Peronato; J. H. Kämpf; E. Rey; M. Andersen 

2017. PLEA 2017 Edinburgh – Design to Thrive, Edinburgh, July 3-5, 2017.

Plug&Play brain-computer interfaces for effective active and assisted living control

N. Mora; I. De Munari; P. Ciampolini; J. d. R. Millán 

Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing. 2017. Vol. 55, num. 8, p. 1339 – 1352. DOI : 10.1007/s11517-016-1596-4.

Potentiel solaire des territoires urbains : vers de nouveaux paradigmes ?

E. Rey 

2017. Forum Ecoparc 2017, Microcity, Neuchâtel, Suisse, September 8, 2017. p. 3 – 5.

ACTIVE INTERFACES – Stratégies de rénovation active pour le parc bâti suisse

S. Aguacil Moreno; S. Lufkin; E. Rey 

Forum Ecoparc 2017, Microcity, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, September 8, 2017.

Influence of energy-use scenarios in Life-Cycle Analysis of renovation projects with Building-Integrated Photovoltaics – Investigation through two case studies in Neuchâtel (Switzerland)

S. Aguacil Moreno; S. Lufkin; E. Rey 

2017. International Conference for Sustainable Design of the Built Environment 2017, London, UK, December 20-21, 2017. p. 1101 – 1112.

Application of the cost-optimal methodology to urban renewal projects at the territorial scale based on statistical data—A case study in Spain

S. Aguacil Moreno; S. Lufkin; E. Rey; A. Cuchi 

Energy and Buildings. 2017. Vol. 144, p. 42 – 60. DOI : 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.03.047.