ABSTRACT
The most common collectors are flat-plate collectors for space and water heating. It is possible to get higher temperatures for process heat and for solar cooling with well-insulated flat-plate collectors with two to three glazings; however, most highertemperature collectors use some form of concentration for thermal generation of electricity, cooling (absorption cooling), or process heat. Concentrating collectors can also reduce the amount of photovoltaic (PV) cell area for producing electricity. Concentrating solar power (CSP) requires direct radiation, so these collectors need to be in areas with a good-to-excellent solar resource (2,000-3,000 kWh/m2/year or an average of 5.5-8 sun hours/day. See solar maps in Chapter 3 for those regions of the world with that solar resource, which are primarily deserts and arid regions. There are resource maps for CSP for the Southwestern United States that include locations of power plants, plus state maps in that region (https://www.nrel.gov/csp/maps.html).
