Building and Experimenting Solar Chimney Power Plant

Abstract

Recently several resources of sustainable and clean energy have been developed, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and others. The Solar Chimney Power Plant (SCPP), which is among those harnessing solar power where a stream of air is induced by adding heat through solar irradiation using the greenhouse effect, is rarely utilized for generating power. The hot air flows through the chimney under the effect of buoyancy force which in turn drives a vertical axis wind turbine. Although this technique is investigated by many reports, unfortunately, it is still in the laboratory phase. However, it might be an optimal solution for zones where operating other techniques is not efficient for various reasons. In this project, an SCPP prototype was built and tested in Anbar, a central province in Iraq. The impact of various design parameters on power generation was assessed. The experimental results prove the feasibility of SCPPs for generating electricity at low costs and the suitability of building SCPPs in countries technologically less developed with specific weather conditions and scarcity in water resources that are normally needed for cleaning solar panels, for example.