Parabolic collectors of commercial solar thermal power plants are subject to variable convection heat transfer from the receiver tube. In the present study heat transfer from a receiver tube of the parabolic trough collector of the 250 kW solar power plants in Shiraz, Iran, is studied taking into account the effects of variation of collector angel of attack, wind velocity and its distribution with respect to height from the ground. The governing equations for the two-dimensional steady state wind flow include continuity, momentum and energy equations and RNG-based k-epsilon model for turbulence scheme. Finite volume discretization method is used to solve the governing equations with wall function boundary condition and the SIMPLE approach is employed to iterate for the pressure correction and convergence of the velocity field. The momentum equation contains buoyancy force when the buoyancy effect is high and force convection effect is low. Computation is carried out for various wind velocities and different collector orientations with respect to wind direction. For solution of the energy equation, temperature of the receiver tube is taken as 350 K and ambient temperature is assumed to be 300 K. Various recirculation and temperature fields were observed around the receiver tube for different flow conditions. Effect of collector orientation on the average Nu number for the receiver tube was found negligible when the wind speed is low (Re <= 4.5 x 10(5) based on the collector aperture). But when the wind velocity is high (Re > 4.5 x 10(5)), the collector effect on the variation of Nu around the glass cover of the absorber tube is considerable. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.