A new IEA PVPS Task 13 report identifies distinct reliability risks across BIPV, floating PV and agrivoltaics, from heat and partial shading to wave loads, ammonia exposure and soiling. It argues that existing PV qualification standards do not fully capture these application-specific stresses, requiring adapted testing, design practices and performance metrics.
As PV deployment diversifies beyond open-field ground-mounted arrays, a new report from IEA PVPS Task 13 argues that the industry needs to rethink how it designs, tests and qualifies PV systems built into buildings, floated on water, and shared with farmland. “Optimisation of Photovoltaic Systems for Different Applications” (Report IEA-PVPS T13-39:2026) is a follow-up to Task 13’s earlier work on climate-specific PV optimisation (IEA-PVPS T13-32:2025), shifting the focus to application-specific considerations.
The report’s central argument is straightforward: building-integrated PV (BIPV), floating PV (FPV) and agrivoltaics (AV) are not just PV systems installed in unusual places. They are multifunctional infrastructure, and their assessment therefore needs to extend beyond conventional techno-economic metrics such as performance ratio and LCOE. For this reason, the report discusses application-specific KPIs across four categories: energy, economic, environmental and social performance.
