A novel hybrid solar chimney power plant: Performance analysis and deployment feasibility

Abstract

This study presents a novel hybrid solar chimney power plant (HSCPP) design. The HSCPP preserves the typical solar chimney power plant (SCPP), with an additional seawater pool at the base and water sprinklers at the top. This new and novel design configuration offers an opportunity to run the system during the daytime as a traditional SCPP and as a downdraft cooling tower at night. The performance of the HSCPP was analyzed in 16 cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) that span the entire geographical area of the country to select the optimal location for installation. The results showed that the highest annual electrical energy production of 676.20 MWh was achieved in the southern city of Shahrurah. However, the lowest annual electrical energy production of 347.59 MWh was found at Wajh, in the west. The highest annual freshwater production was 143,898 tons at Riyadh, in the center. However, the lowest annual freshwater production was 77,868 tons at Muwayh, in the west. Furthermore, the results showed that the proposed HSCPP increased electrical power production by 55% and freshwater production by 20% when compared to traditional SCPP. In addition, an outstanding reduction in CO2 emissions by approximately 56% was associated with such an application of HSCPP. The performance of the HSCPP is very promising, however, the geographical location to install the HSCPP is performance-critical. Hence, the optimal locations were found to be from the center to the southern part of the KSA.