Solar Updraft Power Technology: Fighting Global Warming and Rising Energy Costs
Pages 52-64
Wilfried B. Krätzig

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-6002.2015.04.02.2

Published: 15 March 2015

Abstract: Solar updraft power technology (SUPT) forms a highly innovative, modern and efficient concept for solar-based electricity generation. Solar updraft power plants (SUPPs) are fueled purely by solar irradiation. They require no water for power generation, so their ideal locations are deserts. A SUPP consists of the glass-covered collector area (CA), in its centre the solar chimney (SC), and around the SC’s perimeter the power conversion units (PCU). This arrangement causes a permanent flow of warm air through the SUPP, producing electricity. The paper describes computer simulation concepts to evaluate the power/energy harvest in such plants, based on fluid-thermodynamics and radiation-physics. The nonlinear numerical processes for the SUPPs’ power harvests are solved by fast computer algorithms. Finally, the high economy of SUPT for world-wide arid zones in terms of leveled electricity costs (LECs) is exemplified by several optimized SUPPs.