CSP Solar Fields are designed as lightweight structures. Nevertheless, due to their size and complexity, large amounts of materials are required. Environmental conditions like wind loads are a key driver for the design of solar fields, including required strength of materials and therefore mass. To give a solid example: Structural steel work for the solar field of a 500,000 m(2) aperture parabolic trough plant (typical 50 MW plant in Spain with 7 h thermal storage) amounts to approx. 12,500 tons of steel. Due to changes in European design codes and the respective loading conditions, the design wind speed increased from 34 m/s to 38 m/s, which increases solar field structural steel mass to 14,450 tons, i.e. by about 16 %. Obviously, prescribed load conditions have a tremendous effect on steel mass and hence cost and environmental impact. Unfortunately, load description in many tender specifications is insufficiently accurate, what often results in confusion or even in significant errors in planning and construction, or higher risks. The paper describes various environmental loading effects, mainly wind, for parabolic trough and heliostat collector fields. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.