A critical review of photovoltaic cell integrated solar chimney: Sustainability and power generation

Solar chimney power plants (SCPPs) are gaining attention as sustainable energy solutions, yet their efficiency and energy output have limitations. To enhance these factors, various hybridization strategies are being investigated, such as integrating solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, waste heat recovery, geothermal energy, biomass, thermal storage, and heat exchangers. Among these, the combination of PV cells with SCPPs has shown particularly promising results. For instance, using semitransparent PV cells can lead to a significant 29% increase in power generation. Transforming traditional PV-based systems into hybrid PV-SCPP configurations can harness the complementary strengths of both technologies, resulting in more reliable, sustainable, and uninterrupted energy production. This review presents a comprehensive and exhaustive study of all these hybrid PV systems, which is a unique contribution not previously addressed in any literature. The study covers their operational principles, methodologies, challenges, numerical approaches, exergy analysis, and economic considerations, providing a comprehensive overview of current advancements and laying the groundwork for future commercialization of integrated systems. The review highlights key developments in methods for enhancing the performance of standalone SCPPs, with a strong emphasis on hybrid PV-SCPP systems aimed at boosting efficiency and output. Furthermore, it suggests several innovative designs for future exploration of these hybrid systems, offering valuable insights for researchers and policymakers to steer further research and development in this area.