PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SOLAR CHIMNEY POWER PLANT (SCPP): A CFD APPROACH

Abstract

The solar chimney’s design is getting innovative solutions and modifications from quite a decade because of the importance the mechanism has proven out. The first solar chimney power plant was established in Manzanares, Spain in early 1980s with an aim of studying its power generation capacity. Since then, the system has caught attention of many researchers because of its simple design and working. The SCPP (Solar Chimney Power Plant) has quite the unique working for power generation which happens with the combined effect of greenhouse and buoyancy effect experienced by the warm air in collector area of the SCPP. This present study focused on testing the potential of SCPP if it’s established in Indian cities where it can help meet low scale electricity demands. The 3 Indian cities chosen are the Ladakh, Mahendragiri and Kutch. The choice has derived from the idea to check CFD modelling and the results from solutions to compare the power generating capacity and the output velocity which these models can offer. The CFD modelling was validated with the other works in CFD from other scholars who validated their simulation results from the experimental data and found very little variation in values. After the successful validation of the 3D CFD modelling, it can be said that despite being a colder place for almost all time of the year, the potential at Ladakh is quite impressive. Mahendragiri in Odisha showed good results due to the fact, the location falls in the tropical zones of Indian subcontinent which benefits it with the direct sunshine for longer hours.