Moisture-participating MOF thermal battery for heat reallocation between indoor environment and building-integrated photovoltaics

The present deployment of photovoltaic (PV) panels on the rooftop has been far below its potential. Stakeholders often see the PV as a strong design constraint, isolated from the built environment and not adapted to their requirements. Here, we propose a new design that combines the PV panels with a metal-organic framework based sorptive thermal battery, which serves as a multi-functional building element and is more actively involved in the indoor environment regulation. The open-loop thermal battery can stock moisture from air with 10(5) times its volume so that the built environment with high humidity at night is dried to a comfortable and healthy level. The moisture is removed at daytime with unpleasant solar heat, thereby cools the PV panels simultaneously, improving electricity generation by 5%. The benefits of this design can be translated into economic added value to facilitate investment decisions of building-integrated PV projects.