Technology Idea of the Week

Technological developments help determine the future of energy sources so I have decided to introduce a new feature in my blog: Technological Idea of the Week! Some of the ideas maybe in the start up stage, some of them maybe more in the creative stage! This will help to examine some of the new players in the energy market alongside the giants such as oil and nuclear power.

The Solar Chimney 

For my first edition in this series I am going to look at a project that takes a new approach to solar and wind power. What is particularly unique about this project is the way it combines different renewable technologies to help improve reliability and maximise power production. 

Image Courtesy of Solar Innovations

The Solar Chimney has two key components: a array of solar cells and a chimney with a turbine at the top. Air is heated at the base by the solar cells and therefore decreases in density and rises up through the chimney. This creates an updraught of air which will propel the turbines at the top of the chimney generating electricity. This can be seen in the diagram below which also demonstrates how this could be attached to houses and utilise pre-existing chimneys.

Image Courtesy of Solar Innovations

This idea has been around since the beginning of the 20th century and an experimental one was constructed in 1982 but then taken down due to concerns over collapse (BBC News, 20th November 2013). However, this idea has suddenly been given life again due the backing of Per Lindstrand who aims to build a 1km (yes 1km) high tower! He is famous for being the first person to cross the Atlantic in a balloon and has funding for this project from the 1851 Royal Commission (The Engineer, 19th November 2013).

Over the last thirty years there has been a lot of research into modelling solar chimneys to try and estimate how effective they can be. The chimney height and turbine head design have the biggest impacts on the efficiency of the solar chimney (Hamdam, Renewable Energy, 2011). Comparison of existing solar chimneys in Spain and Australia have allowed testing of the models to access their validity but there is much more research needed to make sure we use the best design to maximise efficiency (Nizetic et al, Energy Journal, 2008).