In the last four decades there has been a significant increase in solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, which makes solar one of the most promising renewable energy sources. Following this trend, solar power would become the world’s largest source of electricity by 2050. Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) systems, in which conventional materials can be replaced with PV panels that become an integral part of the building, can be enhanced with concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems. In order to increase the cost efficiency of a BIPV system, an optical concentrator can be used to replace expensive PV material with a lower cost option, whilst increasing the electrical output through the concentration of solar power. A concentrator called rotationally asymmetrical compound parabolic concentrator (RACPC) was analysed in this work under diffuse light conditions. Software simulations and experimental work were carried out to determine the optical concentration gain of the concentrator. Results from this work show that, under diffuse light, the RACPC has an optical concentration gain of 2.12. The experimental work showed a value of 2.20, which confirms the results with only a 3.8% difference.

Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system is an application of PV devices introduced with the aim of reducing the cost of BIPV systems through the use of an optical element to concentrate or focus the solar radiation from a large area, into a smaller area to which the solar cell is attached, thus reducing the overall cost by saving expensive PV material. This paper aims at presenting the simulation results of an annual prediction for a system comprising of CPV based on the Rotationally Asymmetrical Compound Parabolic Concentrator (RACPC) and compared it with a non-concentrated PV module installed in Bogota, Colombia under different weather conditions. The yearly energy yield of the CPV module was calculated to be 480 kWh whereas the non-concentrating PV module had a drop in the output - almost half of the CPV module output, having a final value of 231 kWh. This indicates that the RACPC can increase the output by a factor of 2.08. This study demonstrates that a CPV system can be used as an alternative to a conventional PV system; as it offers a lower cost without compromising its performance.