Developments in the design and manufacture of photovoltaic cells have recently been a growing concern in the UAE At present, the embodied energy pay-back time (EPBT) is the criterion used for comparing the viability of such technology against other forms However, the impact of PV technology on the thermal performance of buildings is not considered at the time of EPBT estimation If additional energy savings gained over the PV system life are also Included, the total EPBT could be shorter This paper explores the variation of the total energy of building integrated photovoltaic systems (BiPV) as a wall cladding system applied to the UAE commercial sector and shows that the ratio between PV output and saving in energy due to PV panels is within the range of 1 3-1 4 The result indicates that for the southern and western facades in the UAE, the embodied energy pay back time for photovoltaic system is within the range of 12 13 years When, reductions in operational energy are considered, the pay back time is reduced to 3 0-3 2 years This study comes to the conclusion that the reduction in operational energy due to PV panels represents an important factor in the estimation of EPBT (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved