US Patent 7779829 Solar thermal collector manifold

A solar thermal energy collector manifold is provided. The manifold is connected to solar collector tubes for collecting solar energy. A fluid is used to transfer the heat collected from the collector tubes. The manifold includes an inlet path for receiving the fluid, a fluid flow path for transferring the fluid to the solar collector tubes, and an outlet path for outputting the heated fluid. To facilitate the flow paths, the manifold includes a plate with depressions.