Scientific articles and publications on solar tower technologies

A large number of researchers have paid great attention to solar chimney (SC) power generating technology, but only a few have studied the chimney configuration. Taking a 10 MW SC system as an example, the physical and mathematical models illustrating the fluid flow, heat transfer and output power features of the system are established. Based on constraints such as equal chimney bottom section area or equal chimney surface area, the impact of several sizes of three different chimney configurations upon the chimney outlet air temperature and velocity, system output power and efficiency is analyzed and the influence of the height-to...

Solar Chimney Power Plants (SCPP) are among the promising solar thermal electricity generation technologies. Equipped with a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system, such technologies can overcome variations in the main driving factors such as solar radiation and ambient air temperature. This article presents a comprehensive semi-analytical model of a TES to predict the time-dependent performance of an SCPP. By introducing a Quality Factor of power generation (QF) that includes energy conversion efficiency and capacity factor, the effects of 15 TES materials have been studied on the plant performance. Results indicate no significant dif...