Abstract The generation of electricity from solar energy is one of the options within the renewable technologies that have gained much importance in recent years. Within this area, Dish Stirling systems stand out among solar concentration technologies, as they have the highest efficiency in converting thermal energy into electricity. Unfortunately, there are few publications and information on operating parameters of this type of technology. For this reason, this paper presents a methodology to characterize the behavior of this type of system, considering project parameters of a system installed in the city of Itajuba-MG Brazil. In the initial stage, a geometric and optical analysis is presented, which allows us to determine parameters such as the parabolic disk opening area and optical parameters that define the performance of this component. In the next stage, a thermal analysis is elaborated as a way to quantify the losses in the receiver system and to be able to calculate the energy supplied to the Stirling engine fluid. Finally, relationships are established to characterize the behavior of the Stirling engine working with a DIR type receiver. The results show that for speeds below 8 m/s, the heat loss due to radiation is higher than the loss due to convection, representing up to 90% of the total heat loss in the system, for solar irradiation of 1000 W/m2, the maximum electrical power obtained by the system was 0.99 kW.