Looking Back: That Was Intersolar 2026

Our staff at the Alliance BIPV booth. From left to right: Niklas Albinius, Thorsten Kühn, Björn Rau (Photo © Fabian Flade, BAIP)

BAIP was back at Intersolar for you

We’re looking back on three exciting (and hot) days at the Intersolar trade show. What’s new? What did we experience? And what were our highlights? You’ll find out in this recap.

Once again, you could find us at the joint booth of the German Alliance Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (Allianz Bauwerkintegrierte Photovoltaik) and the Bavarian Solar Association (Solarverband Bayern e.V.), where we had many interesting conversations. Many thanks to Fabian Flade for allowing us to present ourselves and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin as a member of the Alliance BIPV at the event.

Once again, the Intersolar Forum presentations on building-integrated photovoltaics were a very special highlight for us. Top-tier speakers such as Dieter Moor, Harald Sowa, Norbert Betzl, Martin Heinrich, PhD, and Roland Valckenborg ensured that on the first day of the trade show, you could hardly find us anywhere else but at the Intersolar Forum. Among other topics, the difference between “Building Material Class A” (Baustoffklasse A) for construction products and “Fire Protection Class A” (Brandschutzklasse A) for electrical devices was discussed repeatedly here. The latter is reportedly way easier to achieve with solar modules, but it is by no means sufficient for a BIPV product to be used in facades.

BAIP Presents “Emerging PV Technologies” at the SolarTAP Booth

There was also a lot of activity at the SolarTAP booth. Our colleagues Björn Rau and Niklas Albinius helped out here as well, in addition to their work at the Alliance BIPV booth.

SolarTAP is a Helmholtz initiative to accelerate the deployment of emerging printed photovoltaic technologies such as organic and perovskite solar cells. Together with a network of industry partners, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and Forschungszentrum Jülich are further developing the necessary technologies within SolarTAP and transferring the results along the entire “lab-to-fab” value chain to quickly bring these new PV solutions to market maturity and accelerate the commercial use of the technologies.

In this field of flexible thin-film photovoltaics, with a focus on multiple benefits, our colleagues were able to perfectly contribute their expertise in building-integrated photovoltaics. Flexible, adhesive-backed solar film modules, in particular, are especially interesting for building surfaces that, due to structural limitations, could not support a conventional PV system, thanks to their low weight per square meter. At the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, for example, we are currently constructing a large laboratory building that, upon completion, will be covered with various commercial PV films on the technical floors facade, among other areas. Here, we intend to test these modules and their adhesive properties under real-world conditions to assess their durability.

Collage of activities in the SolarTAP network © BAIP

What's new in the world of building-integrated photovoltaics?

Generally speaking, BIPV was (as expected) not a dominant topic at the trade show. Even though numerous suppliers advertise their BIPV products, these are often just colored modules. There weren’t many examples of concepts involving the true integration of PV modules into the building envelope (whether the roof or the facade). This makes the few—mostly European—manufacturers who are explicitly and expertly dedicated to this topic stand out even more.

It has been clear for a few years now: the variety of colored solutions has become a reality. At the same time, transmission losses caused by the colored functional layers continue to be gradually minimized.

Two fundamentally different approaches to improving the glare behavior of solar modules are being pursued in practice: solutions already integrated directly into the module design, or anti-glare films that are applied retroactively to any module.

As is the case throughout the industry, silicon-based PV clearly dominates the BIPV market. As a result, colored modules with power outputs well over 200 W/m² have now become the industry standard. The alternative, “organic PV”—which offers lower power output but greater flexibility in terms of shape and transparency—remains on the market and now achieves approximately 70 W/m² on full-surface, semi transparent window areas. Furthermore, the ability of OPV to provide transparency optimized for photosynthesis makes it a promising application for use in greenhouses—an area being specifically addressed by the SolarTAP network, among others.

Of course, this is just a brief glimpse of the trade show and by no means exhaustive. Surely, some of you will have taken away additional impressions. For the topic of BIPV, Intersolar is certainly an exciting trade show and a good source of insight into trends and the current state of the solar industry. A visit is therefore always worthwhile.

By the way, we hardly saw any architects at Intersolar—even though BIPV is primarily a topic of interest to the construction industry. In our experience, the best way to reach that audience is through their established trade shows and conferences. For BIPV providers, this means having to juggle two different events. So you can also meet us early next year at the Inolope CX Architecture Congress in Dortmund.