This paper investigates the interaction between the heat transfer performance and the thermal efficiency of a molten salt receiver used in the solar power tower plant. A test-bed is built, and a series of experiments of heat transfer enhancement for two types of molten salt receiver tubes, including smooth and spiral tubes, have been carried out under the high temperature and the high heat flux conditions. The experimental results show that the Nusselt numbers of spiral tube with heat transfer enhancement are in the range of 400-1200, which is about 3 times than that of the smooth one on average. The wall temperature of the spiral tube is decreased by about 30 degrees C comparing with that of the smooth tube under the identical heat transfer conditions. The results of the experiment show that, by using the spiral tube as the heat transfer tube, the heat transfer performance of the molten salt receiver is obviously improved, and the radiation and convection losses are significantly reduced. The results will be helpful for the design of the molten salt receiver. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.