Latest revision as of 09:44, 30 March 2026

Abstract

Rural electrification is critical for increasing agricultural output, thereby reducing poverty and improving food security. Electricity pylons are steel structures that transport electricity at high voltages and are often the tallest objects in the countryside. The current study proposes a novel solar chimney power plant (SCPP) model in which the chimney is contained within the pylon’s vertical structure. The numerical methodology was carried out using Manzanares’ SCPP 3D axisymmetric CFD model, which was simulated with ANSYS Fluent software. The RNG k-ε turbulence model and a discrete ordinates non-grey radiation model were used. Following model validation, the results led to the identification of five turbine positions based on five collector radius intervals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this has been observed in the SCPP system as a result of air velocity variations throughout the chimney. Equations based on collector radius and solar radiation are used to calculate the generated electric energy and the number of rural houses that could be electrified at each interval. Our findings confirmed the proposed model’s efficiency in generating electricity; for instance, one hour of 1000 W/m2 solar radiation using a collector radius of 200 m produces 14.82 kW that could supply 6.877 rural houses in India or 7.411 rural houses in China for 24 h. This study proposes a plan for electricity transmission companies to invest in infrastructure (pylons) to provide rural renewable electricity.OPEN ACCESS Received: 16/10/2025 Accepted: 27/11/2025

Document