Parabolic dishes:
Parabolic dishes are concave-shaped discs, which remain constantly focused on the sun with the aid of sun-tracking devices. The curve of each dish concentrates the sun's rays to a small central point, thus reducing heat losses and enabling water (or other fluid) passing through that point to be heated to a high temperature.
Source: Research Institute for Sustainable Energy.
The high temperatures are then used to produce steam, which can be carried through pipes to drive a nearby generator.
To view a photo of a giant Australian parabolic dish, go to the “parabolic dish concentrator” section at:
 http://www.rise.org.au/info/Tech/hightemp/index.html (and look up Figure 5).
 Next Section >> Photovoltaics.
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