Low-temperature solar collectors continued to dominate the market in 2006, contributing 75 percent of total shipments. Medium-temperature collectors were responsible for approximately 6.5 percent of total shipments, increasing its market share substantially over 2005. But the largest gain in market share occurred in high-temperature collectors, which garnered an 18.5 percent share in 2006 after decades of negligible shipments.

The rapid growth included the collectors shipped to the Nevada Solar One solar thermal plant, whose 64 megawatts (MW) capacity makes it the largest solar plant to be built in the world in the last 16 years. The Nevada Solar One plant covers 400 acres in the El Dorado Valley (near Las Vegas, Nevada) and was built directly adjacent to the existing 480 MW El Dorado Energy combined cycle gas power plant. It has 760 parabolic cylinder concentrators with almost 219,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun’s rays onto over 18,000 receiver tubes to enable heat transfer from the sun's rays to ultimately generate up to 134 million kilowatthours (Kwh) of electricity per year, enough to power 15,000 households annually.