Preliminary investigation on the combined use of vertical greenery and the exploitation of energy from photovoltaic panels in building facades in Scandinavian Countries

In the last years, the global warming, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the recent war in Ukraine have exacerbated the energy crisis and the need of saving energy at different scale, from neighbourhood to buildings and components. In the built environment, the energy savings requirements can be achieved through optimized buildings shapes and forms, through installation of renewable energy systems as photovoltaic (PV) panels, and through energy retrofitting interventions that aims to improve buildings thermal performances. In this framework, the use of vertical green wall (VGW) is catching on more attention as an environmentally sustainable solution to be applied over or as part of the buildings skin. These vertical green structures have the benefits of both saving energy, acting as a thermal insulation component, and reducing the wall surface temperature acting as a climate mitigation component of buildings’ facades. Notwithstanding VGWs allow to increase the amount of greenery in densely built environment, especially where there is a lack of green public and private space thus contributing to societal well-being, human outdoor thermal comfort, energy efficiency and performance of building envelope. To utilize these two strategies (i.e., VGW and PV panels) simultaneously might increase the sole performance of each and the benefit of both. Integrated VGW and PV panels solutions to be applied on building facade are quite recent in the research field and needs more effort to be studied. This paper will investigate the alternative ways to combine vertical greenery and PV panels in Scandinavian countries where the solar energy potential is embedded in the optimal use of vertical green walls and building facades. Meanwhile, the criteria to be considered for the optimal result to design and construct such integrated systems will be listed for the designers and decision-making process