A power plant that concentrates the sun’s radiation and uses the resulting heat to generate electricity. This can be a central tower solar power plant, in which flat mirrors called heliostats concentrate the sun’s radiation into an absorber at the top of a tall column, or a trough power plant, which uses parabolic trough mirrors to concentrate the radiation into a focal point, where the tube with heat transfer medium is placed. It can also be a power plant using parabolic dish mirrors. The heated heat transfer medium can then be used in a conventional steam cycle or in Stirling engines. Some solar thermal power plants store energy using molten salts thermal storage.