The wind conditions affect the performance of a solid particle solar receiver (SPSR) by convection heat transfer through the existing open aperture. Aerowindows have the potential of increasing the efficiency of an SPSR. In the present paper, the wind effect on the performance of an SPSR is investigated numerically with and without the protection of an aerowindow. The independence of the calculating domain in a wind field has been studied in order to select a proper domain for the numerical simulation. The cavity thermal efficiencies and the exiting temperature of the solid particles have been calculated and analyzed for different wind conditions. The numerical investigation of the SPSRs' performance can provide a guide in optimizing the prototype design, finding out the suitable working condition and proposing efficiency enhancing techniques for SPSRs. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.