Abstract Solar updraft power technology will generate highly sustainable electricity in world-wide deserts in future. It will overcome certain deficits of present renewable energy technologies. In several countries, such power plants are in pre-design stage, forming an important contribution of structural engineering to future energy supply. The present manuscript starts with the working principles of solar updraft power plants, followed by explaining climatic and wind-technologic design assumptions. Then the central solar updraft chimney – the power tower – is treated in more detail: a thin ring-stiffened RC shell of extreme height, forming the utmost structural challenge of such plants. This part is followed by technical requirements for the collector constructions, by far the largest glass-covered areas ever built, and of the wind-loading on the glazing. Then, further design aspects are extracted by the durability requirements for at least 100 years of operation in extreme desert climates. The paper closes with some cost estimates for the generated electricity.