The insolation from the solar radiations, generally, is not sufficient to generate large quantities of energy for the use of communities.  So the solar energy of the insolation is often accumulated with concentrators, that are part of solar energy collectors of virtually every Solar Energy Capture Process.

The solar energy, of course, is of two forms: Visible Electromagnetic Radiation, and Thermal Electromagnetic Radiation, hence solar energy collectors designs generally are  significantly specialized to accomplish the objective of the energy component being targeted for capture. Further, having been the subject of study for many years, even the form of the Energy Collector has become quite varied, and depends on the application-specific. Every collector consists of two essential devices, the concentrator and the converter.

Several types of energy concentrator are possible ranging from pure reflectors to both reflectors and absorbers, the later being possible because the two devices could also be made into one by simply using a converter that simultaneously functions as mirror. The pure reflectors are almost always optical mirrors or thermal mirrors, possibly even both mirrors, and therefore only the design specifics are determined by the end-use objective. The optimal material therefore would be a material that is both an optical mirror as well as a thermal mirror, because such a material can be adopted in a design that effects the separation of the processing of the collection and processing of the solar energy.

In general the design can be for the channeling of the energy for other purpose in a separate device or the conversion to electricity within the same collector configuration. The shape of the concentrator is by and large defined by the need to either have the energy accumulated at a point, or along a line of a specific  but variable length. The point accumulation is often needed for applications that required channeling and focused transmission, while the linear accumulation is suitable for application requiring uniform cylindrical distribution of the energy.

Given the general objective of the design of the concentrators, the design in that case is varied only in the geometry of the oval profile of the shape - going from the well-known parabolic shape all the way through large radius oblated spheroidal hemisphere, including even truncated conical shapes with rounded edge . This situation obtains for the concentrators both for the optical energy and the thermal energy.

The geometric variation of the shape of the concentrator can in general be mapped by measuring the changes of the length of the linear

Application-specific Profile Designs
In general, the shape of the concentrator can be mathematically defined in the form of a polynomial with unknown coordinates or weights, which are then evaluated by enforcing performance specification compliance: The radius of the rim of the concentrator is such that the product of the insolation and the surface of the concentrator must yield the design-specified energy requirement; The calculated path of energy reflection based on the preferred manner of incidence of the reflected rays must be incident on the specified linear region of accumulation.

On a purely mathematical design, an approach is to begin with a default rim-radius of unity, and then with the linear accumulation of the rays as per the concentration-specification of the design, generate the operational tangential plane of the concentrator surface and iteratively evaluate the design-profile of the concentrator such that the normal to the tangential plane lies also along the angle-bisector of the angle of reflection of the radiant  energy path at the point of incidence on the inner-surface of the concentrator. This is evaluated along the entire profile of the surface from the rim to the base-section. After the initial construction of the profile descriptive function, the design energy requirement as per the design-specification is tested for compliance; in the event of non-compliance, the rim is appropriately adjusted and the profile function re-evaluated but with the object of evaluating only the coordinates or weights of the last derived profile function instead of the starting polynomial function. The process is iterated until the variation of the coordinates of the descriptive function is negligible as per specified for iteration convergence.

Although the optimal design approach of the purely mathematical analysis is much better, because of the rigor available to the designer and the use of computer for fast iterative computation, the design can also be made, albeit with some imprecision, with graphical analysis. By graphical design, the iterative construction of the tangential plane has to be using methods of engineering graphics, which admittedly is tedious, but offers an alternative, to the daunting mathematically involved approach.

First consideration is the materials of design of the mirrors. Several materials are currently available for such design, however, the selection of material is not independent of the other factors. While for optical energy concentrator the primary criterion of selection is optical radiation reflectivity, and for thermal energy concentrator the criterion is thermal radiation reflectivity, no material provides perfect  - that is to say, one hundred  percent (100%) reflectivity in any case. In fact whether or not the concentrator is for optical or thermal radiation, the thermal reflectivity of the material is crucial to the mirror-material selection as the rest of the design hinges on this characteristic.

Immediately upon the choice of a mirror-material, the difference relative to perfect reflectivity in thermal energy reflection is evaluated, and based on the quantity of the  non-reflected or absorbed energy the prospective temperature rise of the mirror-material is evaluated.  The effect of temperature variation on the reflectivity is also evaluated to produce the data needed to be used for developing a heat removal design. Rationally, the mirror-material is kept as thin as possible, to enable rapid heat removal from the material. Consequentially, a support base on which the mirrors are layered is designed.  The primary structure that embodies the application-profile therefore is the support-base structure.

Optimally, the heat removal design or equipment is for all intents and purposes implemented as matrix embedded within the mirror-support base. The embedding of the heat removal matrix within the structure must be such that it comes in close contact with the surface on which the mirrors are layered, in order to effect the rapid heat removal. For ease of manufacturing and assembly the support-base and the heat removal matrix structure, expected ordinarily to be a very large structure, should be designed as a set of modular sub-structures assembled into the mirror-profile support structure. the mirror is then layered on the surface of the base.

Although, specific materials for mirror are not selected and specific design of the heat removal system is not proffered, the object of developing a rational approach to concentrator design is accomplished, and the approach can be used without limitation, given the flexibility offered by the non-specificity of application by which it is developed.