The demand of energy, global warming and greenhouse gas emission have forced the world to look into alternative sources of energy. Solar thermal technologies are regarded as the most promising technology that can supplement the usage of fossil fuels in power generation. Among the solar thermal technologies, parabolic trough solar collectors (PTC’s) from the concentrated solar power (CSP) technology are the most matured application for the production of electricity and steam generation. The development of parabolic trough solar collectors has been carried out throughout the world for different thermal applications ranging from industrial heat process to generation of electricity. In Malaysia, the use of solar thermal technology for the generation of electricity and industrial heat process is not given much attention. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to review the development of parabolic trough solar collectors (PTC’s) for different thermal applications and pointing out some challenges and prospects associated with the development of PTC in Malaysian environment.