As well as arraying the heliostats on a south-facing hillside to focus sunlight down onto the molten-salt receiver, modelling has pointed to the possibility of building the receiver in an elevated location, with the array below.
An idea first investigated during the 1970s, the “virtual tower” configuration has the potential to create optical efficiencies 10-12% better than in a layout with heliostats set above the receiver.
However,
