Thermal Comfort and Energy Performance of Photovoltaic-Integrated Building Envelopes
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 103
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mixed convective and radiative heat transfer; building performance simulation; solar architecture design and modelling
Interests: building intelligent diagnosis and treatment; repair materials; green building nanomaterials; resource regeneration and recycling; new energy materials and devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
With the growing global emphasis on sustainable development and net-zero energy targets, building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) envelopes have emerged as a promising strategy to simultaneously reduce building energy demand and generate on-site renewable electricity.
The collected papers address critical aspects of thermal comfort, indoor environmental quality, and energy efficiency when photovoltaics are incorporated into façades, roofs, and shading devices. Contributions span from experimental investigations and numerical simulations to field case studies and design methodologies, highlighting the dual challenge of optimizing both human comfort and system performance.
Areas of interest include the following key topics include:
- Impacts of BIPV integration on indoor thermal comfort and microclimatic conditions;
- Modelling and simulation of the thermal and energy-related behaviour of photovoltaic building components;
- Design strategies and control approaches that balance energy generation with indoor environmental quality;
- Case studies demonstrating real-world applications of BIPV systems in various climates and for different building types;
- Advances in hybrid systems, such as building-integrated photovoltaic/thermal (BIPVT) technologies, and their implications for comfort and energy efficiency.
By bridging architectural design, building physics, and renewable energy engineering, this Special Issue provides insights into how building-integrated photovoltaic envelopes can transform the built environment. The findings will contribute to ongoing research and practice aimed at creating energy-resilient, low-carbon, and occupant-centric buildings.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jun Han
Prof. Dr. Yuanhao Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- building-integrated photovoltaic system (BIPV)
- renewable energy
- indoor environment quality
- thermal comfort
- thermal and electrical performance
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