Assessing the potential application of solar energy solutions for an office building assumed to be built in 07 climate zones in Vietnam

Abstract

This study analyzes and evaluates the potential application of solar energy solutions (roof-mounted solar panels and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems) for an office building assumed to be built in 07 different climate zones in Vietnam including the Northwest region (zone I), the Viet Bac midlands - mountains and Northeastern region (zone II), the Northern Delta region (zone III), the North Central region (zone IV), the South Central region (zone V), the Central Highlands region (zone VI) and the Southern region (zone VII). Accordingly, the energy use intensity of the office building constructed in 07 climate zones is evaluated using energy simulation tools under different scenarios: the baseline scenario (without applying solar energy solutions) and energy saving scenarios (with applying solar energy solutions according to different cases). The results of energy simulation under different scenarios generally showed that the application of rooftop solar panel solutions or BIPV for office buildings has the potential to produce a large amount of electricity to meet the energy demand of the office building. Especially, when combining rooftop solar panels and BIPV systems, the energy savings of the office building are very large and in some cases the amount of electricity produced from solar energy solutions completely meets the energy demand of the office building. When considering different climate zones, the results of energy simulations indicated that the energy savings of office buildings applying rooftop solar panel or BIPV are also different and one of the reasons is the difference in the total number of sunshine hours per year in localities/climate zones.