Investigation of Solar Chimney Power Plant and Experimental Analysis of Energy Yield from Small Size Draft Tube and Solar Collector

The Solar chimney power plant is a naturally driven power generating system. In this research, a solar chimney power plant is studied by developing an experimental model for a maximum power output of(32\,\mathrm{W}). The performance of large-scale electricity generation from the plant is predicted by analyzing different geometrical configurations. CFD model is used to study flow characteristics of air temperature inside the collector. Then, for 30 kW power output, the selected optimized dimensions are: chimney height, collector diameter, chimney diameter, and collector height are estimated to be 15 m, 15 m, 0.2 m, and 0.2 m respectively. For a fixed chimney diameter and collector height, an increase in height of the chimney raises the power output until it reaches the designed optimum height, an increase in chimney height beyond the optimum value will result in an energy loss due to lower total pressure difference caused by frictional pressure rise. The experimental model developed is scaled down to a chimney height of(3\,\mathrm{ m})and collector diameter of(2\,\mathrm{m})with a maximum power output of 32 W. In the experiment, the characteristics of the temperature inside the collector are studied by varying the height of the collector above the ground. The temperature difference between collector exit and collector inlet from the comparison of experimental and simulated modeled are in good agreement. It was found that the implementation of a solar chimney power plant is technically feasible for the generation of electrical energy up to the desired potential by adjusting chimney height and collector diameter.