Solar thermal collectors as the name suggests are collectors designed to absorb the heat and radiation from the sun and convert it into thermal energy. There are different types of solar thermal collectors available, which can be sourced from the market or can be built by individuals themselves. Solar thermal collectors are basically of three types i.e. concentrating, flat-plate, and evacuated tube.

Concentrating solar collectorsare usually used for commercial power production systems, as it can generate large amount of energy due to its capacity to reach high temperatures. More often, concentrating collectors is made of parabolic troughs with a mirrored surface, which helps to concentrate and collect the solar energy on the absorber tube. The absorber tubes either contain water or heat transfer fluids. However, since these collectors are largely dependent on direct sunlight they are not feasible in places where the sun light is not abundant or in places which remain cloudy for long periods of time.