Targeted subsidies and aesthetic appeal have helped lay a foundation for the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) market, and modest but steady growth will support future opportunities for innovative cross-industry services and improved products, according to a recent report from Lux Research.
However, today's $1.7 billion BIPV market's lack of standardization, low production volumes and formidable competition from building-applied photovoltaics (BAPV) will hinder broader adoption through 2013, the company adds.
In the report, titled ‘Laying the Foundation for Building Integrated Photovoltaics,’ Lux describes opportunities for entering the BIPV market, likely candidates for strategic partnerships, market developments and new technologies that will foster success, and how conventional and thin-film solar technologies will compete in specific applications.
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‘The market may be too small to be a central interest to big players, but we see key opportunities for technology providers that can deliver BIPV components with an aesthetic differentiation, as opposed to a cost differentiation,’ says Johanna Schmidtke, a Lux Research analyst and lead author of the report.
‘That also applies to architects and building envelope specialists who can distinguish their own businesses, while raising awareness of BIPV,’ she adds.
SOURCE: Lux Research
