Abstract: The characteristics and operation principle of tower solar thermal power generation technology and the key technologies of tower solar receivers such as working fluids and suitable structures were introduced in this paper. Meanwhile, the tower solar receivers were classified based on the types of working fluids and the advantages and disadvantages of the current type of receivers were analyzed. When the liquid sodium was proposed, the liquid metal receiver becomes the new promising receiver. Water/water-stream receivers and air receivers are the earliest and widely applied types of tower solar receivers, but the thermal efficiency is limited. The molten salt cavity receiver has the higher thermal efficiency. However, the molten salt will decompose when the operation temperature is over 600℃. The dual receiver applies the two kinds of working fluids in order to improve the thermal efficiency, whereas the structure is too complex to be practical application. What's more, the particle receiver is the new promising receiver, which can improve the operating temperature and solar-to-electric efficiency. The structure of the particle receiver is very complex, so the particle receiver is not widely used in the tower solar system at present. To sum up, the effects of the working fluids and the structure of receiver are highlighted, the main research direction of the tower solar receiver is to select the appropriate working-fluid and optimize the receiver structure.