A scalable and modular solar thermal dish-Brayton system is proposed in response to growing demand for renewable energy and distributed power generation. The operating temperature of materials limits the conversion efficiency of existing Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems, rendering small-scale systems for residential use too expensive to be marketed. This work proposes a low cost, high efficiency solar receiver as the core of a dish-Brayton CSP system with the capability to achieve much higher operating temperatures than existing receivers. The proposed receiver is fabricated from silicon carbide for its high absorptivity and thermal conductivity. The manufacturing process consists of a simple casting and sintering procedure called co-firing. A heat exchanger is integrated into the walls of the receiver, taking advantage of the high thermal conductivity of silicon carbide. The entire solar energy receiver is designed to heat air up to 1500 K, which is found to be the optimal operating temperature for the proposed output and practical component selection. This operating temperature improves energy conversion efficiency over concentrated solar power generation based on 1270 K by 20%. The optimization of the operating temperature for residential scale, along with experimental test results on a scaled device, is presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.