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With energy resources being fossil fuel-based, increasing energy production has already reached levels that threaten human health. In this situation, the use of alternative energy sources is seen as the only solution. Solar energy is seen as the most promising source among these alternative energies in terms of its potential. Hence, therefore, this study focuses entirely on one of the solar energy sources. This research aims to assess the impact of the design and underground additional heat source (AHS) on the system performance based on the Manzanares pilot plant (MPP), the first on-site practice of solar chimney power plants. Divergent chimney-SCPP with sloping collector (DISCPP) is analysed in the present work. For DISCPP, the influence of the underground AHS in the range of 50–250 °C on the system outputs is examined. The study demonstrates a remarkable enhancement in power output (PO), with the plant generating 51,545 kW under the reference case conditions. The findings signify that when utilising the DISCPP system, the output soars to 247,672 kW under identical climatic conditions. During sunless hours, a PO of 61,956 kW is achieved with the DISCPP at an underground AHS temperature of 50 °C. Moreover, when the source temperature reaches 250 °C during sunless hours, the DISCPP system continues to deliver a significant output of 450 kW. These outcomes underscore the exceptional performance and reliability of the DISCPP system, even under varying conditions.

The present work involves a new and novel upgrading design to the classical solar chimney power plant (SCPP) structure. The SCPP design was modified by adding a co-centric secondary external chimney to the SCPP structure to enhance energy production. In the new improved design, named the solar double-chimney power plant (SDCPP), the internal chimney, operates like a traditional SCPP to produce electricity during the daytime whereas the secondary external chimney operates as 10 cooling towers (CT) in a series. Each CT is equipped with a turbine and water sprinklers for further energy production. The new design offers the operation of the SCPP during the day and the continuous operation of the CT (day-and-night). A mathematical model that includes the energy and mass balance equations of the system was built using MATLAB. The SDCPP system produced up to 993 MWh of electrical energy, which is 2.6 times higher than the traditional SCPP (377 MWh). The new design configuration achieved a percentage of thermal efficiency (%ηth) of 1.6%, which is 200 times greater than the SCPP. The economic assessment of the new system revealed a 50% reduction in the localized cost of energy (LCOE) compared with traditional SCPP. The key advantage of the new design is related to the use of low-cost material in constructing the secondary chimney to reduce the fixed capital cost and prompt the economic feasibility of the system. Overall, the proposed SDCPP offers a feasible and economic solution to produce electricity and to potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar chimneys are popular systems for their simple structures and clean energy generation. Thanks to its semi-permeable structure, the collector, one of the system’s basic elements, transfers solar radiation to the system. As a result of the heating of the system air under the collector by the solar radiation passing through the collector, it is directed to the high chimney in the collector centre. During the upward movement of the system air, it converts its energy into electricity via a turbine. Due to its large structure, estimating the amount of energy entering the collector system creates a great cost. The ideal size for the collector is therefore important. This study offers a recommendation for the ideal collector size for the pilot plant in Manzanares in terms of collector size and power output. While 59 kW power output is obtained with the system with a collector radius of 122 m in the reference case, it is observed that the power output increases by 78% when the collector radius is increased to 170 m and the collector area is doubled. The ratio of the ideal collector radius to the reference size for the pilot plant should be in the range of 1–1.5.

Abstract Solar chimney technology is a new generative technology that generates electricity from the direct incident solar radiation from the sun. It is a low-temperature operating solar thermal system that generates power on the basis of three technologies (chimney/draft technology, wind turbine technology, and greenhouse effect technology). It consists of three fundamental parts: turbine, vertical chimney of decent height and a collector made up of glass panes to absorb the radiations from the sun. Effective use of this technique can generate electricity in abundance and can operate twenty-four hours nonstop annually and can solve the electricity shortage issue in a country like India where the sunlight radiations are immense in intensity and stretch to the major parts of the country. Since its inception, solar chimney technology has seen prosperous advancement but has not witnessed full-scale utilization because of various techno-economic and environmental aspects. This study discusses the critical review of the solar updraft/chimney technology in various parts of the world and emphasizes its important aspects.

The depletion of fossil fuels and climate change are major worldwide problems. Unlike hydrocarbon resources, solar energy is a clean, inexhaustible, and sustainable power source to meet all of humankind’s energy demands. Solar chimney power plants (SCPPs) having a simple design are capable of generating large‐scale solar powered electricity. The systems have three primary components: a chimney, turbine, and collector. The optimization of the chimney geometry plays a key role in achieving the peak efficiency of SCPPs. In the current work, a three‐dimensional (3D) model on the basis of the Manzanares prototype with a chimney height ( H ) of 194.6 m and radius ( R ) of 5.08 m is developed to identify optimal height for the innovative constricted chimney section configurations via ANSYS FLUENT. The height of the narrowed chimney sections varies as 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 of H for a fixed radius as 1/3 of R . The findings indicate that the power output ( P o ) increases with decreasing the narrowed section height from H /4 to H /32 owing to enhanced mass flow rate and turbine pressure drop. The highest P o of 65.9 kW is gained with the configuration with the height of H /32 and P o enhances by 43.3% compared to the base case at 1000 W/m 2 . The novel equations are improved from the numerical data to estimate the performance features. Besides, the impact of the narrowed section radius on the performance is examined to optimize the dimensions of the constricted section. It is found that a decrease in the narrowed section radius from R /3 to R /5 for a constant height of H /32 leads to a reduction in P o by 1.2% because of a remarkable decrease in mass flow rate. H /32 and R /3 can be optimum height and radius value for the reduced chimney section to augment system efficiency.

Solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is one of the promising technologies to convert solar energy into carbon-free power generation. It has cost competitiveness, environment friendly and longer service life. Although remarkable advancements were achieved, commercialization aspect of the SCPP has not been established so far. Feasibility assessment of the large-scale plants was carried out by researchers in different climatic conditions across the globe but none of the studies materialized to date. However, it is almost four decades from the development of the first prototype, and no studies have been discussed the barriers to commercialization of the SCPP yet. Therefore, in this present study, a-state-of-the-art review has been presented which discussed the overview of SCPP technologies, factors affecting the flow and performance characteristics of the plant and major barriers in the commercialization aspect of the plant. The overview of SCPP technology including its global status and recent advances are spotlighted. The power potential and carbon emission mitigation of the SCPP based on the climatic condition and geographical location was studied by taking India as an example. In addition to that, the major challenges and opportunities in the SCPP are also addressed. Based on the analysis, a few recommendations are given for commercialization the plant.

This study presents a case study of a novel hybrid solar chimney power plant (HSCPP) design’s performance in the city of Doha, Qatar. The HSCPP construction is similar to the traditional solar chimney power plant (SCPP) but with the addition of water sprinklers installed at the top of the chimney. This allowed the solar chimney (SC) to operate as a cooling tower (CT) during the nighttime and operate as an SC during the daytime, hence providing a continuous 24-h operation. The results showed that the HSCPP produced ~633 MWh of electrical energy per year, compared to ~380 MWh of energy produced by the traditional SCPP. The results also showed that the HSCPP was able to produce 139,000 tons/year of freshwater, compared to 90,000 tons/year produced by the traditional SCPP. The estimated CO2 emission reduction (~600 tons/year) from the HSCPP is twice that of the traditional SCPP (~300 tons/year). The results clearly show that the HSCPP outperformed the traditional SCPP.

This work explores the technical possibilities of increasing the efficiency of a standard solar chimney power plant (SCPP) by integrating it with photovoltaic (PV) panels. The integration is possible by using the collector circumference to install the PV collectors, which provide a heat sink, allow for the better harvesting of the solar radiation, and increase energy production. The new design led to an increase in the annual electricity production from 380 to 494 MWh and water production from 278 to 326 k tons/year compared with the standard SCPP, marking an increase of 30% and 17%, respectively. The results also show that the integration reduced the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the localized cost of energy, and the capital cost of investment by 30%, 36%, and 20%, respectively. The proposed design supports the sustainable replacement of the existing desalination plants with zero operational costs and an excellent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

This work presents a novel triple-renewable energy system (TRES) that is based on integrating the photovoltaic panels (PVPs), conventional solar chimney (CSC), and cooling tower (CT) in one structure. The ultimate objective of the proposed TRES system is to produce electrical power (P elc ), desalinated water (D w ), and if required cooling utilities. The components of the system include a chimney tower, collector, base, PVPs, water pool, bi-directional turbine, and water sprinklers. The TRES system can be operated as CSC during the daytime and CT at night providing 24-h operation. The PVPs were integrated within the structure to increase the P elc production and enhance the process performance by heating the air inside the system. The TRES structure increased the efficiency to 0.860% in comparison with the CSC (0.313%). The annual P elc production from the TRES system was found to be 792 MWh compared with only 380 MWh generated by the CSC achieving 2.1 folds overall improvement. The CSC-PV and CT contributed to 47% (494 MWh) and 24% (253 MWh) of the P elc production, respectively. The annual D w production was found to be 1.2-fold higher (163,142 tons) higher than the CSC (139,443 tons). The newly developed TRES system offers a great potential to produce P elc and D w and save fossil fuel consumption while reducing the emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) to the atmosphere.

The incorporation of solar chimneys and fossil fuel power plants plays a beneficial role in reducing fuel consumption and environmental pollution. The need to pay attention to the turbine placement and the advantage of waste heat recovery from energy resources also increased the importance of the issue. In this study, the potential of integrating waste heat resources of a steam power plant is explored to increase the overall efficiency of a solar chimney power plant (SCPP). The effects of utilizing expelled heat from wet cooling towers and stack’s flue gas are taken as waste resources and are numerically studied on preheating the inlet air of the collector of the SCPP. The influences of designing the proper geometry of the flue gas chimney inside the collector are studied on the air entering the main chimney of the SCPP and the height of the flue gas chimney on the output power. The impact of allocating the semitransparent walls for flue gas chimney is analyzed on the gas temperature and the overall efficiency of the SCPP. Three‐dimensional numerical simulations are adopted to contribute to a direct reduction in water consumption in wet condensers and an indirect reduction in fuel consumption of the steam turbine power plant. Based on numerical results, the proper vertical position of the turbine showed the pronounced effect on the output power of the SCPP. The choice of adding simultaneously radiators and flue gas chimney on the output power of the SCPP has become more important than that achieved by the addition of only radiators in all flue gas chimney heights. Ultimately, identifying the best turbine position and the most effective flue gas chimney height led to a 214.1% increase in the overall efficiency of the hybrid SCPP compared to the conventional Manzanares SCPP.