BIPV: Education and Training Activities for Solar Architecture

This report provides the first structured international mapping of academic and professional training initiatives dedicated to solar architecture and integrated PV design. 

Despite the growing availability of BIPV products and increasing interest in solar-integrated buildings, uptake remains limited. Today, BIPV accounts for only 1–3% of the global PV market, with skills gaps, fragmented education systems and weak integration between the construction and solar sectors identified as key structural barriers. 

“BIPV has the potential to transform the building envelope into an active energy-generating component. However, without a skilled and interdisciplinary workforce, this potential cannot be realised at scale,” says Pierluigi Bonomo, one of the main authors of the report. 

Key Takeaways 

1. BIPV uptake remains limited, representing just 1–3% of the PV market globally, primarily due to structural barriers including fragmented value chains, insufficient cross-sector collaboration, and a shortage of professionals trained in integrated BIPV design and implementation.

2. Education and training initiatives exist but are fragmented and unevenly distributed. The report maps 32 active BIPV-related courses across 14 countries, revealing that BIPV is still largely treated as a niche or elective topic rather than embedded in mainstream architectural and engineering curricula.

3. Practice-oriented, interdisciplinary training is critical to enable market-scale BIPV deployment. Programmes combining architectural design, PV technology, hands-on workshops and cross-disciplinary collaboration show the strongest potential to close skills gaps and support workforce development. 

The report further highlights that current training primarily targets architects and engineers, while other key stakeholders – including contractors, managers and decision-makers – remain underrepresented. It emphasises the importance of modular, flexible and applied learning formats that reflect real-world project processes and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

The findings conclude that without structured and accessible education pathways, BIPV will remain a niche application. By strengthening training frameworks and embedding solar building literacy into architectural and construction education, the sector can support broader market integration and long-term workforce development.