Internal Project Management Guidelines - PV Policy Group

PV Policy Group – WP2 – Questionnaire on national policy framework for PV
Another code that can prevent or at least slow down the development of Building Integrated
PV systems is the Construction Code that obliges builders to guaranty water-tightness for a 10
years period for each element of roof and façades considered as structural part of the building,
a positive measure for the overall quality of the buildings. However, for being covered by
their professional b insurance, builders must follow one of the procedure approved by the the
Building Technical and Scientific Centre (CSTB), either:
i) traditional materials installed following traditional methods as described in Unified
Technical Documents (DTU) or
ii) innovative materials installed following specifically agreed methods through a
Technical Notification (Avis Technique, ATEC) or
iii) innovative materials installed following experimental methods through
Experimental Technical Notification (Avis Technique Experimental , ATEX).
BIPV systems which are part of the building water-tightness in the case of roof or façade
integration, should at least follow an ATEC or an ATEX for installers to be covered by their
insurance company and thus to be in position to offer building owners the legal 10 year
guaranty in normal conditions. The problem is that the extraordinary narrowness of the
French market cannot justify for any PV company the long and costly procedure for obtaining
an ATEC or an ATEX, which must in addition be repeated for each specific product, for
example the same basic product with a change in size. As a consequence installers have to
take on their own the risk to guaranty the water-tightness of each PV system that they install
for ten years, a situation which is particularly risky for them and for building owners as well
and often finally prevent the installation of BIPV systems.
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