Optimisation of the performance of a novel rotationally asymmetrical optical concentrator design for building integrated photovoltaic system

Solar energy is one of the renewable energy sources that has shown promising 22 potential in addressing the world's energy needs, particularly via the solar photovoltaic (PV) 23 technology. However, the high cost of installation is still being considered as the main 24 obstacle to the widespread adoption of solar PV system. The use of solar concentrators is one 25 of the solutions that could help to produce lower cost solar PV systems. One of the existing 26 concentrator designs is known as the rotationally asymmetrical dielectric totally internally 27 reflecting concentrator (RADTIRC) which was developed in Glasgow Caledonian University 28 (GCU) since 2010. This paper aims at optimising the existing RADTIRC prototype by 29 increasing its electrical output whilst keeping the cost of the system at minimum. This is 30 achieved by adopting a better material and a different technique to fabricate the concentrator. 31 The optimised RADTIRC prototype was fabricated from polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) 32 using injection moulding. It was found that the optimised RADTIRC-PV prototype generated 33 an opto-electronic gain of 4.48 when compared with the bare cell under standard test 34 conditions (STC). A comparison with the old prototype showed that the optimised 35 RADTIRC-PV prototype increased the short circuit current by 13.57% under STC.