Experimental and simulation analysis of the optical, electrical, and daylighting performance of the asymmetric concentrating photovoltaic/daylighting system

With the rapid growth of the construction industry, energy consumption and environmental pollution have become critical challenges. Reducing building energy use and advancing renewable energy adoption are key solutions to these problems. To address this issue, a novel asymmetric lens-walled concentrating photovoltaic/daylighting control (LACPC-PV/D) system is proposed in this study, designed for south-facing building walls. The LACPC-PV/D system is mainly derived from the truncation of its core component, i.e., the asymmetric lens-walled compound parabolic concentrator (LACPC) with a truncation length of 20.2 mm, achieving a final geometric concentration ratio of 2.22 × . This system optimizes daylighting performance while maintaining high optical efficiency and electrical output. Ray-tracing simulations and indoor experiments were conducted to investigate the optical, electrical, and daylighting performance of the LACPC-PV/D system. Prototypes of the LACPC-PV/D module (with daylighting) and a reference LACPC-PV module (without daylighting) were fabricated and tested under standard conditions using a solar simulator. Results showed that the LACPC-PV/D module enhanced the short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, and maximum power by 1.59 × , 4.7%, and 1.78 × , respectively, while the reference LACPC-PV module achieved improvements of 1.66 × , 3.8%, and 1.82 × , respectively. These findings indicate minimal impact on optical concentration performance while achieving a daylighting efficiency of 10% within incidence angles of 0–60°. Additionally, the daylighting performance of the LACPC-PV/D system was compared with conventional semi-transparent PV windows. Ray-tracing simulations demonstrated that, within incidence angles of 15°–85°, the LACPC-PV/D system delivered superior daylighting uniformity, reducing the average coefficient of variation (CV) for illuminance distribution from 4.06 to 2.02. To further evaluate economic performance, the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and Simple Payback Period (SPB) were compared between the conventional flat PV system and the LACPC-PV/D system. The LACPC-PV/D system achieves an LCOE of 0.04342 USD/kWh and an SPB of 5.3511 years, compared to 0.04376 USD/kWh and 5.3928 years for the conventional system. Furthermore, its module cost per watt-peak (Wp) is approximately 9.33% lower, demonstrating a comprehensive economic benefit.