The Solar Chimney - an alternative configuration (2) A Model for the Design of Large, Efficient Solar Power Stations
Summary
A new configuration is proposed for the solar chimney involving three concentric circles. The outer two circles form an annular chimney (ring-shaped) which offers a very large area of cross-section for the air flow and much larger buoyancy forces. The inner circle provides the entrance to the solar collector. Turbines are sited symmetrically around this inner circumference generating electricity from incoming air.
A model configuration is proposed of chimney diameters 1000 and 960 m and height 200 m. The solar collector has an inner diameter of 600 m with 60 turbines each of diameter 10 m around its circumference. It is calculated that insolation 750 wm-2 generates air flow velocity 39.71 ms-1 through the turbines providing available kinetic energy of 174.0 MW with an efficiency of 52.64%. Larger models are also described with output of up to and over 1000 MW and efficiency about 50%.