Design and performance monitoring of a LSC smart window

The PV market, especially in respect to building integrated PV, is becoming more and more demanding, therefore, new BIPV technologies must be placed side by side to the traditional silicon-based ones. Among other requirements, architectural attractiveness, transparency, color variety and cost-effectiveness are highly requested. Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSC) can meet these goals and might be applied on large transparent or semitransparent building surfaces, like windows, where traditional PV modules cannot be used. LSC technology offers significant advantages over conventional silicon modules and solar concentrators based on mirrors or lenses. The LSC are able to capture effectively both direct and diffuse solar radiation and they are therefore also efficient in cloudy conditions and orientation is not such important as for conventional PV. In this framework, a LSC-Smart Window, developed by ENI and Politecnico di Milano, was designed and realized. The developed Smart Window represents an active element in the energy performance of a building, providing a multifunctional contribution in terms of energy saving through dynamic solar control and renewable energy production. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of the integration of LSC in building façade components, such as the new multifunctional LSC-Smart Window.