Feasibility study of Manzanares solar updraft power plant and proposing better locations for the plant using 3D numerical approach

This paper focuses on the feasibility of the solar updraft tower (SUT) plant, a solar thermal power-production application, through numerical studies. To assess the feasibility, the climatic conditions of 23 possible Indian cities have been taken into consideration and 10 of them have been selected for the analysis, based upon the various solar-related parameters. The numerical model developed is based on the dimensions of the Manzanares (Spain) plant. Through CFD techniques, the flow through the SUT plant is simulated by taking local weather data as boundary conditions. The absorber plate temperature, the temperature near the chimney base of the model and the velocity of the air have been determined and analyzed. Hourly and yearly power potentials, the collector and the overall efficiencies of the plants have also been estimated for different cities and optimized locations have been proposed. The results obtained from the analysis show that the selected regions are able to produce a theoretical power output of 60.94 kW on average for all the cities. Bhavnagar plant produces the highest among all the cities with an hourly potential of 69.897 kW. However, the annual power production of the plants in all the cities is found to be 164.4 MWh on average with Goa having the highest potential of 177.86 MWh. The estimated flow parameters are validated with the published data and noticed a good agreement.