The Potential of Solar Chimney Power Plants for Renewable Energy Generation

The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is a straightforward system that converts solar energy into thermal energy within its solar collector. This thermal energy is then transformed into kinetic energy in the chimney before being converted to electricity using a wind turbine and generator setup. A numerical simulation was created based on the prototype in Manzanares, Spain. The study employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to develop a two-dimensional axisymmetric model of an SCPP using RNG k-turbulence. A two-band discrete ordinates (DO) radiation model was utilized to solve the radiative transfer equation. The primary goal of this research was to evaluate how the inclusion of vegetation under the collector roof impacts the plant's power output. The study analyzed the performance of various SCPP designs, both with and without vegetation under the collectors. These designs included the reference plant, a secondary collector roof system, and a combined secondary and tertiary collector roof system. The findings suggest that while it may be feasible to incorporate vegetation into an SCPP, doing so would likely result in considerable reductions in the plant's power generation capacity.