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Solar thermal collector
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{{Short description|Device that collects heat}} {{For|producing electricity from solar radiation|solar panel|solar cell|photovoltaics}} [[File:Solar panels, Santorini2.jpg|alt=|thumb|Water heating system deployed on a flat roof. The pipes that carry the heat away can be seen embedded in the absorber, a flat plate painted black. In this example the heat is stored in the tank above the panels.]] {{Sustainable energy}} A '''solar thermal collector''' collects [[heat]] by [[Absorption (optics)|absorbing]] [[sunlight]]. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for [[solar hot water panel|solar hot water heating]], but may refer to large power generating installations such as [[solar parabolic trough]]s and [[Solar power tower|solar towers]] or non-[[water]] heating devices such as [[solar cooker]]s or [[solar air heat]]ers.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Harnessing solar heat|last=Norton, Brian|isbn=978-94-007-7275-5|location=Dordrecht|oclc=862228449|date = 2013-10-11|publisher=Springer}}</ref> Solar thermal collectors are either non-concentrating or concentrating. In non-concentrating collectors, the aperture area (i.e., the area that receives the [[solar radiation]]) is roughly the same as the absorber area (i.e., the area absorbing the radiation). A common example of such a system is a metal plate that is painted a dark color to maximize the absorption of sunlight. The energy is then collected by cooling the plate with a [[working fluid]], often water or [[glycol]] running in pipes attached to the plate. Concentrating collectors have a much larger aperture than the absorber area. The aperture is typically in the form of a [[mirror]] that is focussed on the absorber, which in most cases are the pipes carrying the working fluid.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Active solar collectors and their applications |last=Rabl, Ari. |date=1985 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=1-4294-0091-9 |location=New York |oclc=614480348}}</ref> Due to the movement of the sun during the day, concentrating collectors often require some form of solar tracking system, and are sometimes referred to "active" collectors for this reason. Non-concentrating collectors are typically used in residential, industrial and commercial buildings for [[Space heating and cooling|space heating]], while concentrating collectors in [[concentrated solar power]] plants generate [[electricity]] by heating a heat-transfer fluid to drive a [[turbine]] connected to an [[electrical generator]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Investigation on influence of antimony tin oxide/silver nanofluid on direct absorption parabolic solar collector|pages=588β601|journal=Journal of Cleaner Production|volume=249|doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119378|date=2020-03-10|last1=Sreekumar|first1=S.|last2=Joseph|first2=A.|last3=Kumar C. S.|first3=S.|last4=Thomas|first4=S.|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020JCPro.24919378S }}</ref>{{toclimit|3}}
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