
14 Project development in the solar industry
Energy generation, in solar thermal systems, is accomplished through capturing
and collecting sunlight and converting it to heat to be used in a thermal cycle like the
Rankine or Stirling cycle. There are two main categories of solar thermal systems.
First, the non-concentrating systems primarily found on small residential or commer-
cial installations that are used to heat water for personal use. Second, the concentrat-
ing solar power type in which mirrors or lenses are used to concentrate the sunlight
onto a smaller area to achieve a high temperature on some working fluid medium. For
high temperature ...