“Every 24 hours, enough sunlight touches the Earth to provide the energy for the entire planet for 24 years.” – Martha Maeda

Long-term solar energy investments can deliver decades of clean, green, and renewable electricity. Solar hot water systems are designed to supply large amounts of hot water to commercial and residential buildings. Typical systems include solar panels in conjunction with pumps, heat exchangers, and/or one or more large storage tanks. The two main types of solar collectors used in non-residential buildings (evacuated tube collectors and linear collectors) can operate at high temperatures and with high efficiency. A vacuum tube collector consists of many double-walled glass tubes and reflectors to heat the liquid in the tube. A vacuum between the two walls insulates the inner tube, retaining heat. A linear concentrator uses a long rectangular curved (U-shaped) mirror that is tilted to focus the sunlight into a tube that runs along the length of the mirror. Concentrated sunlight heats the liquid in the tube.