Effect of slope tower angle and thermal storage media on flexibility solar chimney power plant performance.

Floating tower projects in solar chimney power plant are emerging with considerable interest. However, high chimney tower might be under great pressure from wind blow. Use of flexible fabric material for the tower might reduce the constraint on the chimney and reduce the cost. The present work is devoted to the study of the solar tower inclination impact on the efficiency of the solar chimney power plant (SCPP). The considered inclination angles of the tower are 15°, 22°, and 30°. In addition, waterbed is laid down on the ground of the collector to store heat. Results showed that a tower inclination of up to 22° might improve the performance of the SCPP. The extra heat storage also made a better use of the energy. This improved the power produced from sunset to sunrise with a lower entropy generation, mainly in the configuration with a solar tower inclination between 15° and 22°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]