My inspiration comes from Solar Updraft Tower(SUT)-design concept for generating electricity from low temperature solar heat.Sunshine heats the air beneath a very wide greenhouse-like roofed collector structure surrounding the central base of a very tall chimney tower.The resulting convection causes a hot air updraft in the tower by the chimney effect.This airflow drives wind turbines,placed in the chimney updraft to produce electricity.Commercial investment may have been discouraged by the high initial cost of building a very large novel structure.
My idea is to drop this cost dramaticaly.Chimney can be economically placed on a hill or mountain slope and solar collector can be made inflatable from clear poly cover without any glass and construction.The chimney is very important component in this solar power station.The chimney acts as a large rising tube located on a mountain slope.When the air reaches the bottom of the chimney it will be hotter compared to the ambient air temperature due to the air absorbing the heat when it flows through the collector.The hot air will rise up tower due to the buoyancy efect of difference in air density and air pressure made from electric fan.Turbine generator produces enough power to drives electric fan~50% and makes electricity for electric grid.The solar collector acts as a heat exchanger that convers the solar radiation energy to internal energy in the air that passes through between the bottom of the collector and the ground.The solar collector utilizes the greenhouse effect.The collector is made out from reinforced clear poly cover.This solar power station Would require not big initial capital outlay,but would have relantively low operating cost.
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