How much energy is lost if there is just a lite haze?
You want solar power lets do it right. Non concentrating thermal solar collectors driving abortion heat pumps using a "steam" engine as the expander driving a generator, using the waste heat off the compressor for generating hot water for domestic or heating purposes, and the cold used for Refrigeration, air conditioning, or driving a Stirling cycle or thermal couple generator. Plus when the weather does not cooperate the system can be powered by a combustion heat source.

"each HCPVT can produce enough power, water, and cooling to supply several homes."
Except when it's cloudy which is a problem with ALL concentrating solar power systems so great if you live in Arizona or Australia but not so great if you're somewhere where it actually rains enough to grow food.

"each HCPVT can produce enough power, water, and cooling to supply several homes"...
While the Sun is shining.

Fantastic! Energy, desalinated water and cooling in one unit will really help a lot of people.

Now much energy will these produce between 1800 (6:00 PM) and 1000 hours? Others remarked about overcast days. How easy will it be to clean snow off the collectors. At night in the bitter cold of winter, what will prevent the cooling water from freezing? Lots of questions lots of Pie the sky.

Slowburn, the Stirling collector was posted in Gizmag back in 2010 http://www.gizmag.com/sunpower-corp-solar-cell-efficiency-record/15536/
Here is the link to Qnergy partnering with Infinia (Stirling) http://www.qnergy.com/solar-stirling-engine-
I saw a 'failure' of a concentrator fire, very enlightening!

It's not a system for regions with lots of annual snowfall. It's not a system for regions with haze, cloudy skies, or lots of rain. Simple as that! There are plenty of people living without power in places where this can be used. It's a really good system, engineering done right.
TeeWee: freezing in the winter, are you kidding me? Ever heard of cars and antifreeze? Solar hot water heaters, used for 40 years with glycol preventing freezing? Anything? There are hot water tanks unlike the ones from your average DIY market that can keep the heat for a week, with one degree of temperature lost per night. They have been on the market for 25 years. Battery storage, or grid tie PV, never heard of? Holy moly. No pie, no sky, and ignorance is not bliss.

"Combined, the whole system produces a total of 12 kW of electrical power and 20 kW of heat over that same period." Colin, it appears that you don't fully understand the difference between energy and power.

Colin, good article, but please don't confuse units of linear measurement with units of area. The chips are 1cm x 1cm in size, and therefore have an area of 1cm2.
Also, the energy output could be a maximum of 20kW, or it could average 20kW, but it cannot TOTAL 20kW as you say. This suggests that you are also unsure of the difference between a kW (kilowatt), which is a rate of energy production / use / transfer, and a kWh (kilowatt.Hour), which is an amount of energy, whether produced / used / transferred slowly over a long time or quickly over a short time.
You may think I am being overly pedantic in asking for accuracy around units of measurement, but this sort of error perpetuates the confusion the exists in the general public around the whole subject of Energy. It is irritating but understandable when these errors appear in small local newspapers; annoying when seen in major newspapers, but very disappointing when seen in a forum specifically dealing with technical subjects.
Also, if my interpretation of the information in the video is correct, the foil IS the mirror surface, not some form of "shielding". The elliptical cross section of the mirror is produced by stretching metallised film across a circular housing, then pulling a slight vacuum behind it, so atmospheric pressure pushes down on the foil and curves it into the required shape.
TeeWee: Are you kidding? A gifted backyard tinkerer could design and build a water cooled concentrating solar system that could cope with freezing temperatures, and add some form of energy and heat storage that made it useful outside of the "sunshine" hours of the day. Not "Pie in the sky" even for an amateur!! Do you really think a company with the technical ability and reputation of IBM would publically associate with a device that was unable to meet its designed function?
Yes, any solar energy "device" will have to be associated with some form of energy storage if it is to be useful overnight, and concentrated solar collectors are only fully effective in parts of the world that see a lot of cloud-free sunshine hours, but for those parts of the world, this could be useful technology, producing good amounts of usable heat as well as electricity.
Energy efficiency and renewable energy generation of various types are a NECESSARY part of our future. There have been a lot of poorly designed and even knowingly fraudulent devices which have clouded the reputation of the field, but there is a lot of genuinely useful research going on, and you should welcome any serious development work being done in those fields.

This is a great convergence of technologies. Bravo. I wonder though what the real world economics will be after factoring in capital cost, maintenance and efficiency? Will home owners and cooperative power suppliers be able to recoup costs in under 5 years rather than just as the PV module have reached their end of life?
We have, in North America and Europe, quasi-government utilities and private operators alike which will attempt to show that it is less risky to spend a few more dollars staying attached to their costly, and upward trending, facilities than to be independent. If economics here are such as they outweigh the "risks" I think IBM/Airlight will have a winner on their hands.