Experimental investigation of climatic effects on the efficiency of a solar chimney pilot power plant

Without any shadow of doubt, energy production based on renewable energies is one of most fundamental methods for energy generation for the near future. Solar chimney power plant is a relative novel technology for electricity production from solar energy. In this stud, after designing and making a solar chimney pilot power plant with 10 m collector diameter and 12 m chimney height, the temperatures and air velocities were measured. The temperature and velocity readings were carried out for some specified places of collector and chimney with varying some parameters on different days. Because of green house effect happened under the collector, the temperature difference between collector exit and the ambient reached to 25 degrees C, and this phenomena caused creation of air flow from collector to chimney. The air inversion at the bottom of the chimney was observed after sunrise, on both cold and hot days. The air inversion appears with increasing solar radiation from a minimum point and after a while, it is broken by the collector warm-up. After the inversion breaking, there would be a steady air flow inside the chimney. The maximum air velocity of 3 m/s was recorded inside the chimney, while the collector entrance velocity was zero. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.