Performance evaluation of floating solar chimney power plant in Iran: Estimation of technology progression and cost investigation

High direct solar radiation and the vast desert areas in Iran are the main factors to the attraction in using solar technologies such as floating solar chimney power plant (FSCPP) for electrical and thermal productions of energy. This article studies the performance of floating solar chimney technology for manufacturing purpose. In order to find the best area for the FSCPP, 14 different areas across the country are considered. The results revealed that FSCPP can produce 5-200 MW of electrical energy. Then a study was performed according to the return of finance rate, net price value, and finance return period criterions. The results showed that these power plants are able to be built in large scales of 100 and 200 MW of electricity with the annual capacity of 311 and 641 GW, respectively. However, a comparison between the cost analysis of two tested models shows that the 200 MW power plant with the cost of 14,273.64 Rials is more beneficial.