نیما خرم پور

In this study, the energy, exergy and economic analysis of a solar tower considering environmental conditions in several cities of Iran is presented and suggested a strategy for choosing the city to achieve the best performance and lowest cost in using the solar tower. The cost function consists of the costs of the mirror area, the tower height, and the equipment inside the central receiver aperture. The thermal and economic modeling of the solar tower is done and the amount of heat required to the receiver, the area of the required mirror and the cost function is calculated for six months in one year to reach a capacity of 6 MW. The cities of Tabriz, Arak, Shiraz, Semnan, Ahvaz, Birjand, Yazd, Kerman and Isfahan are selected for the investigations. Wind speed, DNI, and ambient temperature for each city in different months are considered. The results show that the highest energy efficiency is Shiraz (91.42%)and highest exergy efficiency belonging to the city of Tabriz and Arak city (56.56%). Economic analysis shows the highest cost of a solar tower is for the cost of the mirrors, tower height and receiver cost, respectively. The lowest cost function, as well as the required mirror surface (20898 m2), is for the city of Shiraz. Based on the TOPSIS making decision method for using a solar tower, Kerman (with a score of 0.1508), Shiraz(with a score of 0.1378) and Isfahan(with a score of 0.1276) are in the first, second and third places, respectively.