This paper is a full review on the development of solar photovoltaic technology for building integration and design. It highlights the classification of Solar PV cell and BIPV product for building design purpose. BIPV poses an opportunity to play an essential part in a new era of distributed power generation. Building integrated photovoltaic systems is powerful and versatile tool for achieving the ever increasing demand for zero energy building of the coming years. While some critical policy challenges exist, the value of generating power directly where it is used, aesthetic designs and flexible thin film module form factors is just starting to be understood, which may help to mitigate the barriers posed for current BIPV applications. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.