Jones wrote about collecting sunlight with mirrors and a device that when heated emitted coherent IR light, whihc could be converted to electricity by a PV cell with good efficiency.
The caveats: You have to look at the whole system costs and maintenance. Solar concentrators are old stuff, they pour lots of light onto chips, making good use of their efficiency and cost. The mirrors have to be solar trackers with attendant system costs and have to be kept clean. There are clever afocal concentrator designs which do not have to be tracked and have good collection efficiencies, but they are cup-like and could fill with dust, sand, snow. There is no simple tradeoff if you want to collect lots of energy, not just niche applications. This is not simple. Mike Carrell
