Journal of Applied Sciences1812-56541812-5662Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/jas.2019.1.8VenkatachalamChandraprabu MariamSamuel G. Chimdo AnchalaAbdi 12019191Energy plays a pivotal role in our society because of new life trends which are accompanied with high energy consumption. To meet these needs renewable energy technologies such as solar energy systems have proven to be advantageous in many ways. This paper presented a review of thermal and economic analysis of solar energy collectors and processes. Three non-concentrating and concentrating collectors have been analyzed, which includes flat-plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors from the first category and heat transfer enhancement from the second category. Initially, an introduction into the nature of solar energy was attempted followed by a description and working principle of all three collectors. This was followed by an optical, thermal and thermodynamic analysis of the collectors and a description of the methods used to evaluate their performance. Another important consideration for solar collectors will be the economic analysis, which includes the manufacturing, operation and maintenance costs, etc. Beside these, complexity, uniform flux distribution and working fluid selection of some other important factors in solar collector systems. Typical applications of the various types of collectors have also been reviewed and presented. Through the literature review, it is shown that exergy analysis gives a representative performance evaluation method and is emphasized as a valuable method to evaluate and compare possible configurations of these systems.]]>Kalogirou, S.A.,200430231295Tian, Y. and C.Y. Zhao,2013104538553Martinez, P.M., V.A. Pozdin, A. Papadimitratos, W. Holmes, F. Hassanipour and A.A. Zakhidov,2017119133141Kalogirou, S.A., S. Karellas, K. Braimakis, C. Stanciu and V. Badescu,201656106137Felinski, P. and R. Sekret,2017152558567Kalogirou, S.A., S. Karellas, V. Badescu and K. Braimakis,20168513281333Sint, N.K.C., I.A. Choudhury, H.H. Masjuki and H. Aoyama,2017155608619Chandraprabu, V., G. Sankaranarayanan, S. Iniyan and S. Suresh,20132213220Genc, A.M., M.A. Ezan and A. Turgut,2018130395407Sharafeldin, M.A. and G. Grof,20182-water nanofluid.]]>1553241Sharafeldin, M.A., G. Grof and O. Mahian,20173/Water nanofluids.]]>14124362444Bhowmik, H. and R. Amin,20173119123Bellos, E. and C. Tzivanidis,2018174256272Sokhansefat, T., A. Kasaeian, K. Rahmani, A.H. Heidari, F. Aghakhani and O. Mahian,2018115501508Najera-Trejo, M., I.R. Martin-Dominguez and J.A. Escobedo-Bretado,201691477485Abuska, M. and S. Sevik,2017158259277Hafez, A.Z., A.M. Attia, H.S. Eltwab, A.O. ElKousy and A.A. Afifi et al.,20188212151260Zou, Q., Z. Li and H. Wu,20171418190Jin, J., Y. Ling and Y. Hao,2017204958965Tian, Z., B. Perers, S. Furbo and J. Fan,2018142130138Perers, B., S. Furbo and J. Dragsted,20132013Bellos, E., C. Tzivanidis and V. Belessiotis,2017158663678Bellas, D.V. and E. Lidorikis,2017170102113Kumaresan, G., P. Sudhakar, R. Santosh and R. Velraj,20177713631374Marefati, M., M. Mehrpooya and M.B. Shafii,2018175294313Chandraprabu, V., G. Sankaranarayanan, S. Iniyan, S. Suresh and V. Siva,20132O3/water nanofluid in condensing unit of air conditioner: Experimental study.]]>7686691Chandraprabu, V., G. Sankaranarayanan, S. Iniyan and S. Suresh,20142O3/water and CuO/water nanofluids in a tube in tube condenser fitted with an air conditioning system-An experimental comparison.]]>2014El Ghazzani, B., D.M. Plaza, R.A. El Cadi, A. Ihlal, B. Abnay and K. Bouabid,201711312611275Guo, J., X. Huai and Z. Liu,201695357364Qu, W., R. Wang, H. Hong, J. Sun and H. Jin,2017207717Su, Z., S. Gu and K. Vafai,201787169174Murtuza, S.A., H.V. Byregowda and M. Imran,20173414421Conrado, L.S., A. Rodriguez-Pulido and G. Calderon,20176713451359Mokheimer, E.M., Y.N. Dabwan, M.A. Habib, S.A. Said and F.A. Al-Sulaiman,201486622633Kumar, S.S., K.M. Kumar and S.S. Kumar,201741264112646Budihardjo, I., G.L. Morrison and M. Behnia,20032003Ghoneim, A.A., H.M. Shabana, M.S. Shaaban and A.M. Mohammedein,20165820Nie, X., L. Zhao, S. Deng and X. Lin,2017150192201Abd-Elhady, M.S., M. Nasreldin and M.N. Elsheikh,20172017Felinski, P. and R. Sekret,2017144758766Sable, A.,20173483490Martinez-Rodriguez, G., A.L. Fuentes-Silva and M. Picon-Nunez,20181462633Iranmanesh, S., H.C. Ong, B.C. Ang, E. Sadeghinezhad, A. Esmaeilzadeh and M. Mehrali,2017162121129Naik, B.K., A. Varshney, P. Muthukumar and C. Somayaji,201690227237Bellos, E., C. Tzivanidis, K.A. Antonopoulos and G. Gkinis,201694213222