Caleb Marris and Jessica Dray, “Case Study Research on Carbon Neutral Building Strategies: Building-Integrated Photovoltaics.”
Mentor: James Wasley, Architecture

Architecture is the biggest source of carbon in our atmosphere and finding solutions to eliminate carbon emissions is the fastest advancing objective in the field. Our research with Professor James Wasley will help quantify the effectiveness of photovoltaic energy sources. We will be performing case studies on an array of buildings that claim to be net-zero in their carbon emissions. These case studies will help determine how much energy in kilowatts will be produced by different amounts of photovoltaic energy sources for a building. This research is very important in showing how much energy these alternative methods create. Photovoltaic solar energy is a clean renewable source of energy that uses solar radiation to produce electricity. This method is much more sustainable than others because it recycles the suns energy leaving less waste behind. Using sustainable methods such as photovoltaic solar energy allows for a building to become a net-zero energy building. This means that the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on site. To conduct our research, we will be researching and creating case studies of buildings who are net-zero energy buildings that use photovoltaic solar energy. We will be looking at the photovoltaic systems capacity at the site as well as how much energy they produce to determine efficiency. The anticipated conclusions would be that the more solar panels placed, the greater the amount of electricity created. This will show us the effectiveness of photovoltaics in different regions and integration strategies. This is important because in order to keep producing clean energy, we need to have alternative sustainable sources that are affective in a multitude of different circumstances. Photovoltaics offer the possibility of incorporating clean sustainable design into architecture all over the world.