Design and performance analysis of solar chimney power plant (SCPP): A review

Solar chimney power plant (SCPP) uses solar energy to hit the ambient air which when allowed to pass through a chimney runs a wind turbine that in turn runs a generator to produce electricity. The SCPPs are very huge structures with the ability to generate a significant amount of electricity to serve global power demand without any adverse effect on the environment. Interest in SCPP has become a popular and promising option to utilize solar energy due to pollution and climate change as well as the demand for electrical power globally. Dimensions of plant sub-components like collector area, chimney height, and its radius are the main parameters that needs be well synchronized to attain the best performance. In addition to the dimensional parameters, the design of the wind turbine is another important criterion to achieve the best performance. This is judged in terms of output power and the overall efficiency of the unit. Using detailed mathematical modeling, the plant power output and efficiency are projected for an extensive range of design and functioning parameters concerning the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics. Different relative values between collectors and chimney with the best dimensions are mentioned to obtain cost-effective SCPP. Although remarkable advancement is noticed for designing and understanding SCPP, commercial SCPP has not yet been developed yet so far. This comprehensive review may help the researchers for a deep understanding of flow physics and to identify the key parameters and their value for the best designing of SCPP. Many hybrid models with further modification that merit commercial production of large-size SCPPs is also included in this study.