We live in Western NY and put in a solar water heater system 33 years ago when we put an addition on our house. It was a custom job. The tank was plywood and fiberglass. We have used it all these years to preheat our hot water, provide underfloor heating to our addition and kitchen, and to heat our swimming pool. Last year the tank sprung a leak and we were able to find someone to replace it with a much better tank, and this year he is going to replace some parts on the panels. I think it has not only saved us money over the years, but more importantly, made life much more comfortable.
These days people are trained at community college to handle all kinds of solar systems. There are many options for parts. It is not a problem to find someone who knows how to deal with these things.
The problem with producing power directly is that then you start dealing with bureaucracies that don’t want to give up the power or money.
I actually like some of those old systems that use panels ( with a drain back component) or batch water heating to prevent freezing.
The only systems alive today I know of are the preheating types using a storage tank with heat exchanger and some open systems.
There are several systems I put in in the mid 80’s that are still running. When the Gov began subsidizing most of those types of systems however were not approved types.
My favorite was a manufacturer named Trendsetter.
I’m currently building some prototype double passive solar green house systems to help grow thru Winter. These systems will not be pressurized and only run on water head pressure using thermosyphon to heat the soil under the greenhouse.
My hope is that they can be built using a variety of cheap materials that a homeowner can install and maintain.
Im a fan of the Sun for many reasons, just not a fan of the program’s government has historically done w solar.