legend claims that Archimedes used polished shields to concentrate sunlight on the invading Roman fleet and repel them from Syracuse.[7] Auguste Mouchout used a parabolic trough to produce steam for the first solar steam engine in 1866.[8]
Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. The concentrated heat is then used as a heat source for a conventional power plant. A wide range of concentrating technologies exists; the most developed are the parabolic trough, the concentrating linear fresnel reflector, the Stirling dish and the solar power tower. Various techniques are used to track the Sun and focus light. In all of these systems a working fluid is heated by the concentrated sunlight, and is then used for power generation or energy storage.[9]