The energy transition is a hot topic, businesses also need to think about manners to transition to sustainable energy. Within this graduation the- sis, a stakeholder is involved named the ‘Nederlandse Spoorwegen’, in short NS. The stakeholder has the ambition to make their station’s en- ergy neutral. To achieve this, electricity generating assets needs to be implemented on every asset they own. One of these assets is the P+R parking plots near stations. An easy way of implementing solar into the parking plots is by integrating the solar panels into a carport structure. Current solar carport designs which have been constructed so far, are purely focusing on the aspect of generating the maximum amount of electricity and neglecting the aspect of design. The NS has the ambition to make the carport design sustainable in appearance and material use. Besides the sustainable appearance of the design, the design should be applicable in every P+R parking plots. This results in a modular sustain- able carport design that is orientation independent. For the design, a solar cell technology was needed. Three generations of solar cells were found in literature, but the third generation was not further researched since this generation isn’t commercially available yet. The remaining two generations of solar cell technologies (1st and 2nd generation) were researched on the following topics; performance, de- sign, and sustainability. The information found in this literature research directly fed the multi-criteria analysis (MCA) method called the analyt- ical hierarchy process. With this MCA method, polycrystalline silicon solar cell technology was selected to be the best suitable for the design. Another downside to the current solar carport designs is that these de- signs don’t fully exploit the structural capabilities of the solar panels. In the final design, a connection is designed and analyzed to exploit the structural capabilities of the solar panels, whilst still keeping the trans- parent nature of the solar panels intact. The final design features recycled rail tracks in the structure of the car- port. Besides being made from high-grade steel and the shape of the rail tracks suits their integrating into the structure, the direct link to the stakeholder was also recognized as a benefit for the final selection of this material. To further enhance the sustainable appearance/function of the carport, a green wall is implemented to absorb the rainwater. Thus, im- proving the water absorption in the asphalt dominated landscape of the P+R parking plots. In particular, the design of the sustainable solar carport for the NS is analyzed on solar radiation performance and structural performance (on carport scale and on connection scale). To gain an understanding if the new connection is beneficial on a carbon footprint scale, the newly designed connection is compared to a standard aluminum transom and mullion system.

This study refers to the PV/T-chimney system, an innovative system that combines two solar systems, a Trombe wall system and a PV/T system in order to gain more energy per square meter of application. The research analyzes the impact of the PV-chimney system on the energy performance of residential high-rise buildings and the architectural integration of the system as part of the facade. Different facade design alternatives, which investigate different facade patterns and their limitations in terms of functional and practical issues, provide a categorization of different ways of its use. Based on that, for each architectural category, by the help of energy simulations, a multicriteria analysis of the system is done. The aim is to understand the behavior of the proposed PV-chimney system under different geometrical characteristics in different climate conditions, in order to find the most optimal parameter combinations in terms of performance. In the second part, having as case study the Europoint Towers, in Rotterdam, a detailed facade design of PV/T-chimney is proposed based on the findings of the architectural and multicriteria analysis. This design, was developed in order for the system to adapt in the climate of the Netherlands, where the case study building is located as well as the climate of Hungary, where, it was constructed in 1:1 scale under the framework of Solar Decathlon 2019 competition, which took place in Hungary. In Hungary, an experiment of the system was conducted, in order to test the efficiency of the Photovoltaics under high temperatures and the potential use of this system for ventilation purposes. The results of the experiment indicate the viability of the simulations and underline the possible future improvements of the system for higher energy performance. According to the experiment measurements and the simulations, a comparison of the proposed system with conventional products proves that there is a reduction of the PV efficiency due to high temperatures. Thus, there are energy losses in the operation of the PVs. However, the electricity losses are depreciated by the thermal gains of the system, which give a final positive energy sign to the system.

Reaching a neutral use of energy in the building environment is challenging. That is because, as the population expands, so does the energy consumption. Considering that the building environment is accountable for 40 percent of energy consumption and 36 percent of total CO2 emissions, the building sector has to conform with specific guidelines and targets, in order to reach neutral energy use. Newly constructed buildings are already targeting better energy performance. However, more than one fifth of European building stock has been built before 1945, and together with low renovation rate in Europe, heritage buildings are struggling to become part of the new energy reality. In order to complete the energy transition, every sector of building environment should commit on energy saving and producing interventions. On one hand, by renovating heritage building stock energy is saved and buildings are performing better. On the other hand, it is challenging to apply energy production interventions in such buildings in order to balance the energy demand. This is the reason why, the current research is focusing on how photovoltaic technology could be applied on heritage buildings, without compromising their architectural character. The application guidelines, which are going to answer the latter question, are going to be tested on a heritage case study in Greece. Moreover, the legislative framework for energy transition is going to be described with the purpose to explore the extension of the guidelines, since they are covering all sectors of human activity. Additionally, the building stock in Greece is being presented and how the European legislative framework is applied in this country’s concept. What is more, photovoltaic technology is going to researched in depth, specifically how the photovoltaic cells are producing and how do they produce energy. In order to get more explicit about solar interventions on heritage cases, such as where is the best place for the application and why. In addition to that, more criteria for suitable solar application on heritage are going to be researched, such as color, transparency, size and functionality. After the literature research on both heritage culture and photovoltaic technology, and also the applied version of them in reference buildings, a list of design requirements has formed. Therefore, the only way to test if these guidelines could be used for photovoltaic application in a random building, then it could be very valuable to similar future interventions. Thus, a heritage case building in Greece, specifically in the city of Florina of north-western Macedonia. Regarding the design process, up next, the photovoltaic application is going to be analyzed based on the design requirements of the technology upon heritage and the specific demands of the building case. Supplementary to design guidelines, a matrix is formed in order to present all the different options for the interventions. By the end of the matrix, two energy scenarios are forming in order to perform the application in situations as close to reality as possible. Regarding the design, public opinion upon energy interventions is very valuable, and especially when it comes to solar application on heritage buildings. Moreover, the acceptance of similar interventions is going to be discussed. In addition, and in order to have specific overview about public acceptance in the local community of this research case study, a questionnaire is going to be conducted. The results are going to be presented and the public’s influence is going to be examined. Ultimately, the final design proposal for the case study is going to be demonstrated and the different applications are going to be analyzed. Finally, an overview of the design proposal is being inspected, as far as it concerns the building itself and the urban environment in total. To sum up, general conclusions re going to be presented and also the limitations of the research itself. A few suggestions are additionally to be explored for investigation of future possibilities on the subject.