Transition towards solar-powered buildings? -Understanding the debates on building integrated photovoltaics in Singapore using Q methodology

The combustion of non-renewable energy sources contributes greatly to global warming and many other severe environmental problems, which provoked the worldwide consensus on the importance of sustainable development. In the building sector, the generation of electricity by harvesting solar energy using building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) is an attractive approach of utilizing renewable energy, especially for those highly urbanized regions such as metropolises. Singapore is such a metropolitan city where the deployment of BIPV could potentially play a significant role in the nation's renewable energy development. In order to understand the various stakeholders' debates on BIPV in Singapore, this study employed Q methodology to analyze the different perspectives on BIPV in the local building industry. The results show that there are three main perspectives on BIPV in the industry, namely “support and manage”, “proactively promote” and “wait and see”. This study suggests that there are significant differences in the stakeholders' perspectives on BIPV, which must be taken into consideration in the policy making and strategic planning of BIPV.