Edinburgh Napier University

  Buildings make up 40% of the EU’s primary energy consumption and reducing this consumption through the use of building integrated concentrating photovoltaics (BICPV) is a potential solution to mitigate climate change. This study proposes an absorptive reflective crossed compound parabolic concentrator (AR-CCPC) design which has a thermal absorbent component that provides thermal energy. Ray tracing simulations showed that the total optical efficiency of the AR-CCPC ranges from 60% to 99% and indicated that the thermal component of the system to dominate the energy generation in high angles of incidence. Experimental testing of the thermal absorbent in Aberdeen showed the temperature of the absorbers to reach a maximum of 34.7ºC. Overall, these results are encouraging and show that the proposed design has superior energy generation compared to a traditional CCPC of comparable size.