A

Seminar presentation
On
“Design and Construction of Solar Tower ’’

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mr.Sandeep Jhamb Deepak Bairwa
Head of Department 14EAIME023
Department of Mechanical Engg. B.Tech.IVYr. VIISem.
 Introduction
 Definition Of Solar Tower
 Parts Of Solar Tower
 Functional Principle
 Typical dimension And Electricity Output
 Examples
 Advantages
 Disadvantages
 Conclusion
 References
 Sensible technology for the wide use of renewable energy
must be simple and reliable, accessible to the technologically
less developed countries that are sunny and often have limited
raw materials resources.
 It should not need cooling water and it should be based on
environmentally sound production from renewable or
recyclable materials.
 The solar tower meets these conditions. Economic appraisals
based on experience and knowledge gathered so far have
shown that large scale solar towers (• 100MW)are capable of
generating electricity at costs comparable to those of
conventional power plant.
 This is reason enough to further develop this form of solar
energy utilization, up to large, economically viable units.
 In a future energy economy, solar towers could thus help
assure the economic and environmentally benign provision of
electricity in sunny regions.
 The solar tower's three essential elements solar air collector,
chimney/tower, and wind turbines-have been familiar for
centuries.
 A solar tower sometimes also called 'solar chimney' or solar updraft
tower power plant.
 It is possible to produce electricity using solar system without
concentration of sunlight. The Solar Tower is a large-scale solar
thermal power plant ( 200MW).
 Solar Updraft Towers are like an inverted funnel, with a wide
skirt(circular greenhouse collector) to collect air then turn a turbine
in the tower.
 Since there is temperature difference between greenhouse area and
top of the tower natural convection causes air heated in the collector
to rise and escape through the chimney.
 This air flow drives pressure staged turbines to generate electricity.
If heat is store during the day this can also be used to produce
electricity.
 Collector
 Turbine
 Tower or chimney
.
 Hot air for the solar tower is produced by the greenhouse effect in a
simple air collector consisting of a glass or plastic glazing stretched
horizontally several meters above the ground.

 The height of the glazing increases adjacent to the tower base, so

that the air is diverted to vertical movement with minimum friction
loss.

 This glazing admits the solar radiation component and retains long-
wave re-radiation from the heated ground.

 Thus the ground under the roof heats up and transfers its heat to the
air flowing radially above it from the outside to the tower.
 There is no limitation for the surface area. The larger the area, the
more energy generated from the chimney.

 Covering materials may be different, such as; glass, plastic film or

glazed collector. The most efficient one is glazed collector. It can
convert up to 70% of irradiated solar energy into heat . Also with
proper maintenance, its life span can easily be 60 years or more.
 Using turbines, mechanical output in the form of rotational energy
can be derived from the air current in the tower.
 Turbines in a solar tower do not work with staged velocity like free-
running wind energy converters, but as shrouded pressure staged
wind turbo generators, in which, similarly to a hydroelectric power
station, static pressure is converted to rotational energy using cased
turbines.
 The specific power output (power per area swept by the rotor) of
shrouded pressure-staged turbines in the solar tower is roughly one
order of magnitude higher than that of a velocity staged wind
turbine.
 Airspeed before and after the turbine is about the same. The output
achieved is proportional to the product of volume flow per time unit
and the pressure differential over the turbine
 With a view to maximum energy yield, the aim of the turbine
control system is to maximize this product under all operating
conditions.
 To this end, blade pitch is adjusted during operation to regulate
power output according to the altering airspeed and airflow.
 If the flat sides of the blades are perpendicular to the airflow, the
turbine does not turn.
 If the blades are parallel to the air flow and allow the air to flow
through undisturbed, there is no pressure drop at the turbine and no
electricity is generated.
 Between these two extremes there is an optimum blade setting the
output is maximized if the pressure drop at the turbine is about 80%
of the total pressure differential available.
 The optimum fraction depends on plant characteristics lie friction
pressure losses.
figure 5- Arrangement of large Figure 6- Arrangement of
turbine small turbines
 The tower itself is the plants actual thermal engine. Its a pressure
tube with low friction loss (like a hydro power station pressure tube
or pen stock) because of its favorable surface volume ratio.
 The updraft velocity of the air is approximately proportional to the
air temperature rise in the collector and to the tower height .
 In a multi-mega watt solar tower the collector raises the air
temperature by about 30to 35 K.
 This produces an updraft velocity in the tower of (only) about15m/s
at nominal electric output, as most of the available pressure
Potential is used by the turbine and therefore does not accelerate the
air.
 It is thus possible to enter into an operating solar tower plant for
maintenance without danger from high air velocities.
 There are two types of different chimneys using for the plant. Free
standing chimneys and guyed tubes.
 The life span of a free standing chimney is longer than that of the
Guyed tubes. It lasts about a hundred years, while the guyed tubes
is much shorter.
Figure 7- Free-standing tower Figure -8 Guyed tower
 Functional Principle

Ambient air

Hot air
 The solar tower’s principle is shown in figure . Air is heated by solar
radiation under a low circular transparent or translucent roof open at
the periphery; the roof and the natural ground below it form a solar
air collector.

 In the middle of the roof is a vertical tower with large air inlets at its
base. The joint between the roof and the tower base is airtight. As
hot air is lighter than cold air it rises up the tower. Suction from the
tower then draws in more hot air from the collector, and cold air
comes in from the outer perimeter.
 Continuous 24 hours operation can be achieved by lacing tight
water-filled tubes or bags under the roof. The water heats up during
day-time and releases its heat at night. These tubes are filled only
once, no further water is needed.

 Thus solar radiation causes a constant updraft in the tower. The

energy contained in the updraft is converted into mechanical energy
by pressure-staged turbines at the base of the tower, and into
electrical energy by conventional generators.
Solar power towers consist of a large field of sun-tracking
mirrors, called heliostats, which focus solar energy on a
receiver atop a centrally located tower. The enormous amount
of energy, coming out of the sun rays, concentrated at one point
(the tower in the middle), produces temperatures of approx.
550°C to 1500°C. The gained thermal energy can be used for
heating water or molten salt, which saves the energy for later
use . Heated water gets to steam, which is used to move the
turbine-generator. This way thermal energy is converted into
electricity.
 Any solar chimney power plant is depend on mainly two factors. One is
collector area and other is height of tower.
 As the area of Collector and height of tower is increases then much air is
heated and much air is passed through tower ,more power is generated.
 So there is table which shows that power is directly proportional to height
of tower.
Capacity MW Tower height Tower Collector Electricity
m Diameter m diameter output
m GWH/A
5 550 45 1250 14

30 750 70 2900 99

100 1000 110 4300 320

200 1000 150 7000 680

At a site with annual global radiation of 2300kwh/(m²a)

 Prototype In Spain

The new solar thermal power plant outside Seville in southern Spain.
1. Tower height 194.6meter
2. Tower radius 5.08meter
3. Collector radius 122meter
4. Roof height 1.85meter
5 . No. of turbine 1
6. No. of turbine blade 4
7. Output of plant 50KW
1. Location Midura (New south wales)
2. Tower diameter 150meter
3. Tower height 1000meter
4. Thickness of tower 25cm
5. Collector diameter 7000
6. Output of plant 200MW
7.Company Enviro Mission Limied
8. No. of turbine 32 each of 6.25MW
1. Solar chimney power stations are particularly suitable for generating
electricity in deserts and sun-rich wasteland.
2. It provides electricity 24 hour a day from solar energy alone.
3. No fuel is needed. It needs no cooling water and is suitable in extreme drying
regions.
4. It is particularly reliable and a little trouble-prone compared with other power
plants.
5. The materials concrete, glass and steel necessary for the building of solar
chimney power stations are everywhere in sufficient quantities.
6. The used technology not complex.
7. No ecological harm and no consumption of resources. will reduce production
of over 900,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually
1. Huge Land requirement

 With respect to “land used Vs electricity output “,

Land used is more than that of nuclear or coal power
plants.
x=3100 ft , y=10,826.77 ft
 2) High initial investment:

Heliostats account for 30 % of the cost.

Estimated cost of 300 MW solar plant is
around 2 billion dollars.

500 MW coal 2700 MW Nuclear

power plant Power plant cost
1-1.25 billion 6 billion dollars
dollars.
 The updraft solar tower works on a simple proven principle, its physics
are well understood. As efficiency of the plant increases with tower
height, such plants have to be large to become cost competitive.
 Large plants mean high investment costs, which are mostly due to
labour costs and in addition no costly consumption of fossil fuels. The
latter reduces dependence on imported oil and coal, which is especially
beneficial for the developing countries releasing means for their
development.
 There is no ecological harm and no consumption of resources, not even
for the construction, as solar towers predominantly consist of concrete
and glass which are made from sand and stone plus self-generated
energy.
 Consequently in desert areas with inexhaustible sand and stone solar
towers can reproduce themselves. A truly sustainable source of energy!
1. ‘Our Energy Future Resources alternative and environment´
by Christian Ngo, Joseph Natowitz .

2. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/solar_udraft_tower

3. http://www.solarmissiontechnologies.com/project.htm