Edinburgh Napier University

  In recent years, there has been a significant raise of concerns over global warming and its effect on the environment. This has led to an increased use of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and various bio-energy. Despite all the technological advancements amongst all renewable energy sources, solar energy for Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) was found to have developed the least. Integrating a concentrator into the BIPV design has resulted in a new technology known as the Building Integrated Concentrating Photovoltaic (BICPV). One of the concentrator designs that could be used is known as the Rotationally Asymmetrical Compound Parabolic Concentrator (RACPC). This paper evaluates the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for the RACPC. The LCA of the RACPC has found a cost reduction of 28.56% and a reduction of 11.73% of embodied energy material manufacture when compared to a conventional PV module. The Energy Payback Time for a RACPC and a conventional PV was calculated to be 8.03 and 6.65 years respectively. Moreover, the Energy Return on Investment ratio was calculated to be 3.11 for a conventional PV and 3.76 for a RACPC.