Harvesting solar energy for green buildings through plastic optical-fibre daylighting systems: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Optical-fibre daylighting systems (OFDS) harvest solar energy as a renewable lighting resource by delivering sunlight deep into green buildings. This emerging technology for sustainable infrastructure reduces electric-lighting demand; however, reported performance is difficult to compare across heterogeneous designs, metrics, and validation practices. Therefore, a PRISMA 2020–reported systematic literature review (SLR) of OFDS studies from three databases (Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science; 2000–2025) was conducted, synthesising primary research that quantifies system- or component-level performance, with a focus on (i) plastic optical fibre (POF) transmission characteristics; and (ii) POF-based illuminance model validation. After de-duplication and screening, 106 primary studies were included, and two meta-analyses were performed where data were harmonised from 29 studies in total. Across reported POF configurations, attenuation ranged from 150 to 800 dB/km with a pooled mean of 332.8 dB/km, corresponding to a mean 1 m transmission of 92.7% and median design length scales of ∼3.7 m for 80% transmission and ∼11.6 m to half-power. Across illuminance validation datasets, models showed high linear agreement with experimental measurements (coefficient of determination ((Formula presented.)) = 0.99; slope = 0.99) but typically underpredicted illuminance (geometric mean ratio = 1.16; mean absolute error (MAE) = 27.3 lux; mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) = 17.6%). These findings underscore the need for a standardised evaluation framework, including consistent metric definitions, robust uncertainty reporting, and reusable validation datasets to enable variance-weighted synthesis, while also identifying short-run POF routing as a key lever for improving system efficiency. In addition to providing the OFDS research agenda, this study serves as a roadmap for the industrial development of daylighting systems for green buildings based on harvesting solar energy, with its novelty lying in the PRISMA-guided evidence synthesis and quantitative meta-analytic consolidation of POF transmission and illuminance-validation performance.