A co-located solar receiver and thermal storage concept using silicate glass at 1000°C and above: Experiments and modeling in the optically-thick regime

•A co-located solar receiver and thermal energy storage concept is presented.•Solar radiation is directly absorbed and stored in a volume of silicate glass.•A model coupling Monte Carlo ray-tracing to CFD is developed and validated.•A prototype is tested maintaining glass temperatures of 1500 °C for 10 h.