The different types of solar ponds are described, including the nonconvecting salt gradient pond and various saltless pond designs. Then the availability and cost of salts for salt gradient ponds are discussed and costs are compared. A simple computational model is developed to approximate solar pond performance. This model is later used to size solar ponds for district heating and industrial process heat applications. For district heating, ponds are sized to provide space conditioning for a group of homes, in different regions of the United States. Size requirement is on the order of one acre for a group of 25 to 50 homes. An economic analysis is performed of solar ponds used in two industrial process heat applications. The analysis finds that solar ponds are competitive when conventional heat sources are priced at $5 per million Btu and expected to rise in price at a rate of 10% per year. The application of solar ponds to the generation of electricity is also discussed. Total solar pond potential for displacing conventional energy sources is estimated in the range of from one to six quadrillion Btu per year in the near and intermediate future.