How it works Solar power towers consist of a large field of sun-tracking mirrors, called heliostats , which focus solar energy on a receiver atop a centrally located tower. The gained thermal energy can be used for heating water or molten salt, which saves the energy for later use.
Heatened water gets to steam, which is used to move the turbine-generator.
This way thermal energy is converted into electricity. As already mentioned there are two main fluids which are used for the heat transfer, water and molten salt. Water for example is the oldest and simplest way for heat transfer. But the difference is that the method in which molten salt is used, allows to store the heat for the terms when the sun is behind clouds or even at night. The salt melts at about 700 C and is liquid at approx.