The thermal applications of solar
energy have gained momentum after the revolution in the field of PV technology
in recent decades. The worldwide quest to harness the thermal component of
solar energy, which constitutes the major part of the incident, solar radiation
incident globally, has led to the development of numerous thermal devices and
applications that harness and store or utilize the same with never before seen
efficiency. A few applications and devices are discussed here in this chapter.
The first part of the chapter presents a brief discussion of the solar pond and
its features along with thermal modeling of the system, followed by the thermal
modeling and discussions about solar cooling systems. The later part of the
chapter describes solar refrigerators and solar concentrators. The application
and devices discussed here are of prime importance in developing basic and
advanced solar thermal devices to harness solar thermal energy efficiently for
human needs.
Keywords: Application, Solar cooling, Solar devices, Solar thermal.
