Molten salts have been widely considered as the leading candidate heat transfer fluids (HTF) used in high temperature, concentrated solar power plants. Specifi cally, nitrate and nitrite based salts have been investigated as a HTF and even deployed in pilot plants generating up to 19.9 MW of electricity at operating temperatures above 500 °C. New plant designs requiring higher operating tem peratures for better efficiencies are pushing the stability limit of HTF. This paper presents an overview of the ther mophysical properties of nitrate and nitrite salts and dis cusses thermodynamic and kinetic stability limitations as they relate to concentrated solar power generation.