TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INSTRUMENTATION AND TESTING - Preferred Components: The solar collector further comprises: a first and second mirror members, where the first mirror member is carried by one of the beam side walls main inner face and the second mirror member is carried by the other beam side walls main inner face; a sun tracking system operatively connected to at least one beam element, where the sun tracking system continuously maintains exposed surface of the photovoltaic cell member and thermal collector member on the beam web in a generally perpendicular orientation relative to the incident sunrays from the sky; an electronic controller, automatically controlling the tilt and translation of the carrier frame and associated the beam element to keep the exposed surfaces of the photovoltaic cell member and thermal collector member perpendicular to incident sunrays reflected by the beam side walls light reflecting surfaces; and first and second acrylic/polymer double layer sunray light reflecting membranes, where the first membrane is carried by one of the beam side walls main inner face and the second membrane is carried by the other beam side walls main inner face. The plane of each the beam side wall light reflecting surfaces make an angle of 11-17 degrees relative to a plane orthogonal to that of the beam web. The thermal collector member is a glazed flat plate assembly. The thermal collector member is 3x concentrator type. The beam side walls are made from aluminum. The sun tracking system comprises a self-standing upright ground column having a top end, a bracket mount rotatably mounted to the upright column top end, a slewing drive rotatably driving the bracket mount at the column top end, a planar carrier frame having one and another opposite main faces, means for mounting the bracket mount to the carrier frame for relative movement of the latter relative to the main carrier frame, ram means carried by the bracket means and engaging the carrier frame one main face for tilting the latter relative to the ground column and anchor means anchoring the web of at least one beam element to the carrier frame's another face. In the solar collector, there are many beam elements mounted side by side in the carrier frame's another main face and are edgewisely interconnected in successive pairs. The length of each beam element is 3-10 meters, where substantially full length of the corresponding web is fitted with the photovoltaic cell members and thermal collector members. The beam web includes an open pocket projecting opposite to the beam side walls and defines an aperture, where the photovoltaic cell member and thermal collector member are slidingly releasably engaged through the web aperture into the web pocket. The glazed flat plate assembly includes: an open casing engaging the pocket; and a thermally insulating block mounted into the casing at a distance from the beam web, where a volume of air is formed between them and a number of flow tubes for free flow of heat exchanger fluid. The flow tubes are mounted into the insulating block but open freely into the volume of air from the beam web. The solar collector is of hybrid type, comprising both at least one photovoltaic cell member and at least one glazed flat plate assembly and a number of flow tubes for free flow of heat exchanger fluid through them, where the flow tubes are mounted into the insulating block and edgewisely abutted against the photovoltaic cell member for enhancing heat dissipation from the latter. The photovoltaic cell member is fixed directly against and beneath the beam web opposite to the beam side walls. The glazed flat plate assembly includes an open casing, thermal insulating block mounted into the casing and directly abutting against the photovoltaic cell member opposite to the beam web. The beam web includes an open pocket projecting opposite the beam side walls and defining an aperture, where the photovoltaic cell member and thermal collector member are slidingly releasably engaged through the web aperture into the web pocket and the photovoltaic cell member is fixedly applied directly against and beneath the beam web opposite to the beam side walls. The plane of each beam side wall light reflecting surfaces make an angle of 13.5-16.5 degrees relative to a plane orthogonal to that of the beam web. The plane of each beam side wall reflecting surfaces make an angle of 15 degrees relative to a plane orthogonal to that of the beam web.