•CFD simulation for heat loss of central tower solar receiver was carried out under various conditions.•A correlation model for estimating convection loss was derived using the simulation results.•The model allows of a simple heat loss calculation for various solar receivers in different conditions. Heat loss is an important factor in predicting the performance of solar receiver of concentrated solar power (CSP) systems. This study presents a numerical simulation calculating convection and radiation heat losses from four different receiver shapes including external and cavity type receivers with different opening ratios (ratio of cavity aperture area to receiver area). The simulation was carried out using Fluent CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software considering three different receiver temperatures (600, 750, and 900°C), three wind velocities (1, 5, and 10m/s), and two wind directions (head-on and side-on). The simulation results were then used for deriving a simplified correlation model which gives the fraction of convection heat loss by a function of opening ratio, receiver temperature, and wind velocity. The calculated fraction can be easily converted to convection heat loss, total heat loss, or receiver efficiency once the radiation heat loss is estimated by any applicable prediction model. Calculated heat loses by the proposed simple correlation model showed good agreements with the simulation results with 11.4% and 5.9% average absolute deviations for convection heat loss and total heat loss, respectively. Validation of the model with experimental data was also carried out using test results available from three central receiver systems (Martin Marietta, Solar One and Solar Two).