Summary
Two unsteady mechanism models of solar chimney power plants, one detailed and one simplified, are developed and checked against data from the Manzanares prototype, then used with a new power quality index combining efficiency and output stability to optimize geometry. Taller chimneys raise this index while larger collectors lower it; best collector height depends quadratically on chimney diameter, and storage-layer thickness is largely independent.
Description written by Solar Tower. The original abstract is available from the publisher via the link below.