The focus of the current study is the wind loads on a 10.5 m x 9.0 m heliostat with a column height of 6.4 m, located in Beijing, PR China. This paper presents selected results of wind tunnel measurements of wind pressures on the heliostat. Wind pressure distributions are presented for typical configurations. Fluctuating wind pressure characteristics are analyzed, including skewness and kurtosis coefficients, fluctuating pressure spectra and probability density functions. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.