Researchers from The Australian National University, China’s Tianjin University and Silicon Valley company Chromasun are collaborating to create solar trough concentrators for rooftops that are cheaper and more efficient than previous models. True, this sounds like news we’ve all heard before—and on certainly more than one occasion—but the inter-continental scope of the project could expand and deepen solar power’s reach into budding and burgeoning markets alike.

Granted, China and the Silicon Valley are already fairly large markets for solar, each primarily using a different kind of solar technology (thermal/hot water in China, photovoltaic in California). And Australia currently boasts plans for seven solar cities. Yet concentrated solar power (CSP), which uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight into a high-powered beam then converted into a heat source, is too often the overlooked middle child of the solar technology family. It’s true that there have been some fairly high-profile concentrated solar systems—Nevada One or Spain’s PS10 solar power tower, for example. Nevertheless, awareness and demand for smaller—and therefore more residentially feasible—installations of solar trough concentrators aren’t as high as they are for PV or solar thermal systems. Concentrated solar systems currently carry high costs and insufficient demand, which means they have a while to go before commanding a huge fan (or, more importantly, user) base.

The ANU press release reports that the Australian government is providing $1.8 million to the Australian arm of the collaboration, as part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. The scientists hope to provide both emerging economies and budget-conscious potential adopters of solar power with more affordable, effective solar technology. And they’re looking not just to the Chinese market.