Experimental investigations of hybrid: geothermal water/solar chimney power plant

This study aims to contribute to the operation's continuity of solar chimney power plant (SCPP) by integrating geothermal water as an additional heat source. A prototype of (SCPP) with 8 m height and 12 m of collector diameter was built in Ouargla University. A spiral pipe of geothermal water was installed inside the collector. During the experiments, the temperatures' profile were measured through the collector, the temperature of the chimney's entry as well as the air velocity in all cases namely: in the night under geothermal water heating and in daytime under solar irradiance coupled/uncoupled with geothermal water. The experiments carried out in winter 2019 show that the night heating with geothermal water resulted in an increase of the collector center's temperature to 37.1 degrees C and the air velocity to 5.1 m/s in the optimal case when the geothermal water enters at the collector center and exits at its periphery. On the other hand, during daytime, when the heating is by the solar irradiance only, the collector center's temperature reaches 68.3 degrees C and the air velocity reaches 5.8 m/s. Furthermore, coupling the solar irradiance with geothermal water leads to the rise of collector center's temperature to 80 degrees C and the air velocity to 7.1 m/s.