Solar power tower

[2] In 2007, companies such as ESolar (then backed by Google.org) were developing cheap, low maintenance, mass producible heliostat components that were to reduce costs in the near future.

[3] ESolar's design used large numbers of small mirrors (1.14 m2), to reduce costs for installing mounting systems such as concrete, steel, drilling, and cranes.

In 2023, Australia's national science agency CSIRO tested a CSP arrangement in which tiny ceramic particles fall through the beam of concentrated solar energy, the ceramic particles capable of storing a greater amount of heat than molten salt, while not requiring a container that would diminish heat transfer.

Workers at the Ivanpah solar power plant call these birds "streamers", as they ignite in midair and plummet to the ground trailing smoke.

[7] The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is classified as a greenhouse gas emitter by the State of California because it has to burn fossil fuel for several hours each morning so that it can quickly reach its operating temperature.

Beam-down (a variation of central receiver plants with Cassegrainian optics[9])[clarification needed] tower application is also feasible with heliostats to heat the working fluid.