Which material used to made solar thermal dishes?
Question:
Answer:
Almost any reflective material that you could shape into a parabolic mirror would work for this. Aluminum is one alternative -- I know of some solar researchers (and some boy Scouts) who have made solar ovens using aluminum foil. More sophistaicated (and expensive) versions would use other metals.
The basics are that they use concave mirror material to reflect light to a sigle point. If you took a normal mirror, broke it up, and then pointed the peices so they would reflect light to the same spot, then you would have a really cheap solar thermal dish or array.
I understand that there are slightly better materials than a normal mirror to reflect sunlight, but that is all there is to it.
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