SUNSOKO Parabolic troughs are the only commercially available solar concentrator that can be used to deliver high temperature thermal energy. Parabolic Concentrators are the most utilitarian of solar collectors in terms of the markets they can serve. Parabolic troughs can deliver heat at temperatures ranging from 100° - 560° F (40-290° C) for applications such as hot water, space heating, air-conditioning, steam generation, industrial process heating, desalination, Community Cooking and power generation.

The primary reason for using concentrators is to be able to use less solar cell material in a PV system. PV cells are the most expensive components of a PV system, on a per-area basis. A concentrator makes use of relatively inexpensive materials such as plastic lenses and metal housings to capture the solar energy shining on a fairly large area and focus that energy onto a smaller area, where the solar cell is.

Several advantages of concentrator PV systems, as compared to flat-plate systems, can be enumerated. Concentrator systems increase the power output while reducing the size or number of cells needed. An additional advantage is that a solar cell's efficiency increases under concentrated light.

A typical basic concentrator unit consists of a lens to focus the light, cell assembly, housing element and secondary concentrator to reflect off-center light rays onto the cell, mechanism to dissipate excess heat produced by concentrated sunlight, and various contacts and adhesives.