Abstract The present study aims to present an approach to mitigate the maximum solid temperature and its gradient inside the porous material in volumetric solar receivers. To this end, a porous receiver with non-uniform air velocity at the inlet is considered in the present study. Comparison of the results with those obtained for a porous receiver with uniform air velocity at the inlet reveals the ability of the new velocity distribution in reducing the maximum solid temperature and its gradient within the solid phase. The temperature distribution is obtained for different porosities and pore diameters in the porous receivers with uniform and non-uniform air velocity distributions at the inlet. It is observed that the proposed distribution of air velocity at the inlet decreases the maximum solid temperature within the porous receiver even for small porosities and pore diameters of porous media.