Solar chimney power plant optimization to achieve maximum power output

The increasing of population, energy demand and environmental pollution due to using fossil fuels, have guided the societies to utilize renewable energies. In this case, the solar chimney power plant is one of the most applied means for energy exploitation. Due to its low efficiency, optimization is a way for enhancing the system performance. In this study, optimization of solar chimney was carried out for the purpose of reaching the highest theoretical power. The objective function is the power output of the system and the solution is based on the optimum construction cost of a 200 MW power plant. The design variables cover the geometric parts including chimney height, chimney radius, collector height, collector radius and the turbine distance from the ground. Also, the mathematical model was validated with the experimental data of the Manzanares solar chimney in Spain. For writing the optimization algorithm, the SQP (Sequential Quadratic Programming) algorithm and the evolutionary algorithm were utilized. Finally the optimum amounts for reaching the maximum power output were obtained.