Solar updraft chimney systems in high rise buildings

This paper is aimed at introducing - for the first time - the concept of solar chimney in high rise buildings in an attempt to utilize the solar energy with no need for expensive PV modules. The core of the building serves the chimney and the area around the building serves the corrector, provided that this area is covered with a plastic or glass roof above the ground level. A simplified thermodynamics analytical model for steady air-flow inside the solar chimney based on Bernoulli equation combined with ideal gas flow equation is implemented to predict the performance of the chimney. An application example is the Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, which uses solar PV modules and wind turbines to contribute to the energy demand of the building.