Design and simulation of a novel geothermalsolar combined chimney power plant

The solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is dominated by the solar radiation, and therefore its discontinuous operation is an unavoidable problem. In this paper, low temperature geothermal energy is introduced into the SCPP for overcoming this problem. Based on a developed mathematical model, theoretical analyses are carried out to investigate the performance of the geothermal-solar chimney power plant (GSCPP) with main dimensions the same as the Manzanares prototype in Spain. It is found that the GSCPP can attractively run in the full geothermal mode to deliver power continuously, which could solve the problem of the SCPP's running without sunlight in a long time, including at night. In addition, the introducing of geothermal energy into the SCPP can highly improve its power capacity.