Development of a Rule-based BIM Tool Supporting Free-form Building Integrated Photovoltaic Design

Korea has been at the forefront of green growth initiatives. In 2008, the government declared the new vision toward 'low-carbon society and green growth'. The government subsidies and Feed-in Tariff (FIT) increased domestic usage of solar power by supplying photovoltaic housing and photovoltaic generation systems. Since 2000, solar power industry has been the world's fastest growing source with the annual growth rate of 52.5%. Especially, BIPV(Building Integrated Photovoltaic) systems are capturing a growing portion of the renewable energy market due to several reasons. BIPV consists of photovoltaic cells and modules integrated into the building envelope such as a roof or facades. By avoiding the cost of conventional materials, the incremental cost of photovoltaics is reduced and its life-cycle cost is improved. When it comes to atypical building, numerous problems occur because PV modules are flat, stationary, and have its orientation determined by building surface. However, previous studies mainly focused on improving installations of solar PV technologies on ground and rooftop photovoltaic array and developing prediction model to estimate the amount of produced electricity. Consequently, this paper discusses the problem during a planning and design stage of BIPV systems and suggests the method to select optimal design of the systems by applying the national strategy and economic policies. Furthermore, the paper aims to develop BIM tool based on the engineering knowledge from experts in order for non-specialists to design photovoltaic generation systems easily.