An Energy-Harvesting Facade Optimization System for Built Environments

Daylighting is the immediate exploitation of solar energy in the form of nat-ural lighting and plays an integral role in minimizing the energy footprintof a building. Smart daylighting enables us to design buildings that providecomfort and energy savings.This work proposes a dynamic facade system for buildings which aims tomaximize user comfort while simultaneously maximizing energy savings byharvesting solar energy optimally. The solar panels on the facade can har-vest the highest amount of energy when it is positioned perpendicular to thesuns rays. However, this may result in unsatisfactory lighting conditions in-side the room and the problem is approached as a bi-objective optimizationproblem. This work is a preliminary exploration of the concept of smartskins for buildings that autonomously regulates light while harvesting solarenergy, contributing to the creation of the future of sustainable buildings.The primary focus of this research work revolves around building a con-ceptual model, formulating an optimization problem, developing a controlalgorithm, iFOS, and then evaluating it. Data was simulated using advancedsimulations to evaluate the dynamics of light indoors.Two benchmarks were created to evaluate the algorithm against, one wherethe system works towards maximizing user comfort indoors, and the other,where the system works to maximize the energy harvested by the facade.Upto 8% increase in the energy harvested was achieved with minimal loss inuser comfort in the use case evaluated. The average energy figure for TheNetherlands in the summer months is about 5 kWh/m2/day, which makesthe total energy that can be captured at 20% efficiency to be about 750kWh per day. The algorithm is found to work the best when the desiredlight level to be maintained indoors lies in the range [400,600] lux