The main aim of this paper is to study the performance of concentrated solar power plants equipped with molten salts thermal storage to cover a base load of 3 MWel. In order to verify the possibility of storing effectively the thermal energy and to design a plant for base load operation, two locations were chosen for the study: Gela in southern Italy, and Luxor in Egypt. The electricity production of the CSP facilities has been analyzed and then compared with the electricity production of PV plants. Two different comparisons were done, one by sizing the PV plant to provide the same peak power and one using the same collectors surface. This paper has also highlighted some important issues in site selection and in design criteria for CSP plants used for base load operation.