A solar collector is the broad name given to a range of different solar technologies, including solar thermal collectors, photovoltaic solar panels, and photovoltaic thermal hybrid collectors. While each of these solar collectors works in vastly different ways, they are all designed to collect the energy of the sun and transfer it into a more usable form.
For example, thermal solar collectors transfer heat energy and turn it into energy, such as the devices that are commonly found on rooftops to heat domestic water supplies. Photovoltaic panels utilise a very different kind of technology, by capturing solar energy and transferring it directly into electricity. Photovoltaic thermal hybrid collectors are different again, and covert solar radiation into both thermal and electrical energy. By removing waste heat from photovoltaic modules, these kinds of hybrid systems are able to improve the efficiency of solar energy collection.
The first category of solar collection device on the market are known as solar thermal collectors, designed to collect heat through the absorption of sunlight and turn it into a usable form. Solar thermal collectors are commonly seen on rooftops and domestic water heating solutions, although they can also be seen in commercial electricity generation systems. The two major types of thermal collectors are flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors, with each kind having its own advantages in terms of heat absorption, efficiency, and overall usability. In terms of electricity generation, there are other thermal designs that are in operation around the world, including parabolic troughs, parabolic dishes, and power towers.
While households all over the world have been utilising thermal collection technology for hot water generation for a long time now, the use off photovoltaic cells for the generation of electricity is also on the rise. Photovoltaics are very useful for transferring solar energy into electricity, normally through the use of battery cells which hold and distribute charge. Solar collectors are very important to the future of energy consumption and fossil fuel reduction around the world, with scientists everywhere trying to develop this technology as fast as possible and produce the very best designs possible. While other renewable energies such as wind, tidal, and geothermal are also important to the future of the human race, solar collectors arguably have the most important role to play.