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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.

Solar chimneys are renewable energy systems designed to enhance natural ventilation, improving thermal comfort in buildings. As passive systems, solar chimneys contribute to energy efficiency in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. The effectiveness of a solar chimney depends on its design and orientation relative to the cardinal directions, both of which are critical for optimal performance. This article presents a supervised learning approach using artificial neural networks to forecast the performance indicators of solar chimneys. The dataset includes information from 2784 solar chimney configurations, which encompasses various factors such as chimney height, channel thickness, glass thickness, paint, wall material, measurement date, and orientation. The case study examines the four cardinal orientations and weather data from Mexico City, covering the period from 01 January to 31 December 2024. The main results indicate that the proposed artificial neural network models achieved higher coefficient of determination values (0.905-0.990) than the baseline method across performance indicators of the solar chimney system, demonstrating greater accuracy and improved generalization. The proposed approach highlights the potential of using artificial neural networks as a decision-making tool in the design stage of solar chimneys in sustainable architecture.

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.

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.

Interest in renewable energy is rapidly growing due to the increase in energy demand, environmental pollution, and depletion of fossil fuels worldwide. One of these sources is solar chimney power plant, which utilizes solar energy to generate electrical energy at a relatively low operating cost. Solar chimneys also do not require cooling, indicating that water resources are not wasted, and they are expected to be widely used in developing countries with abundant solar radiation. This study involved installing a solar chimney with a height of 3 m and a diameter of 3 m for the collector. The experimental results were verified by performing numerical work using ANSYS Fluent, under the scenario that no partition was present in the collector. The exergy efficiencies with I- and C-type partitions were compared with the case without partition. The result showed that the exergy efficiencies were 7.05 % and 7.12 % for the I- and C-type partitions, respectively, and they were higher than the previous 6.44 % for no partition. This study confirmed that the power generation exergy efficiency can be increased by installing partitions in existing solar chimney power plants.

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.

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.

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.

The Solar Chimney Power Plant (SCPP) utilises a two-step procedure to transform solar energy into electricity. First, it uses a solar collector to turn sunlight into thermal energy. Then, this thermal energy is transformed into kinetic energy as it raises a chimney and finally into electrical energy via a wind turbine and generator. A numerical simulation of a prototype in Manzanares, Spain, was conducted using a 2D axi-symmetric model and computational fluid dynamics with an RNG k-turbulence model. The simulation also involved solving the radiative transfer equation with a two-band discrete ordinate radiation model. This study aims to evaluate the effect of vegetation beneath the collector roof on a solar chimney power plant’s performance. Our research compared various designs of these power plants, both with and without vegetation. Three configurations were examined in this study: a standard power plant, a power plant with a secondary collector roof, and a power plant with both secondary and tertiary collector roofs. According to our findings, the system with secondary and tertiary collector roofs demonstrated the highest electricity generation capacity, yielding an annual output ranging from 34 to 80 kW. The findings indicate that adding vegetation into a solar chimney power plant is feasible but will most likely reduce the plant’s energy generation.

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.