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.
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