EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE TOP PLATE INFLUENCE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR VORTEX ENGINE

Solar energy – the clean and renewable energy has been receiving recognition and welcome from the society and authorities. Researches have been done all over the world to improve solar energy harvesting efficiency, and fully utilize solar energy to replace non-renewable energy resources in the future. Many solar technologies have been developed to capture solar thermal and light energy. Solar chimney or Solar Updraft Tower (UTP) is one of the inventions created and provide promising power generation. Solar Chimney Power Plant (SCPP) captures solar thermal energy and to be converted into mechanical energy using wind turbine before producing electricity. However, higher chimney tower is required to enable higher efficiency, inducing a higher construction cost. Thus, the Solar Vortex Engine (SVE) was proposed to utilize artificially developed vortexes as replacement on chimney tower.