GC: n
CT: The solar chimney power plant basically operates like a hydroelectric power plant, but instead of water it uses hot air. The principle is a relative simple one. A round ascending glass roof with a diameter of several thousand metres is used as a collector. A chimney in the middle sucks the ascending heated air and the air ascends with a velocity about fifteen metres per second. The arising air suction is driving wind turbines which are placed in the chimney. The turbines are used together with a generator and a gearing to produce current.
S: SCPP – http://goo.gl/48WtCz (last access: 26 January 2015).
N: 1. solar (adj): mid-15c., “pertaining to the sun,” from Latin solaris “of the sun,” from sol “sun”. Meaning “living room on an upper story” is from Old English, from Latin solarium. Old English had sunlic “solar.” Astrological sense from 1620s. Meaning “operated by means of the sun” is from 1740; solar power is attested from 1915, solar cell from 1955, solar panel from 1964. Solar system is attested from c.1704; solar wind is from 1958. Solar plexus (1771) “complex of nerves in the pit of the stomach,” apparently so called from its central position in the body.
chimney (n): late 13c., “furnace;” early 14c., “chimney stack of a fireplace;” late 14c., “fireplace in a residential space;” from Old French cheminee “fireplace; room with a fireplace; hearth; chimney stack” (12c., Modern French cheminée), from Late Latin (camera) caminata “fireplace; room with a fireplace,” from Latin caminatus, adjective of caminus “furnace, forge; hearth, oven; flue,” from Greek kaminos “furnace, oven, brick kiln.”
power (n): c.1300, “ability; ability to act or do; strength, vigor, might,” especially in battle; “efficacy; control, mastery, lordship, dominion; legal power or authority; authorization; military force, an army,” from Anglo-French pouair, Old French povoir, noun use of the infinitive, “to be able,” earlier podir (9c.), from Vulgar Latin *potere, from Latin potis “powerful”. Sense of “electrical supply” is from 1896.
plant (n): Most extended usages are from the verb, on the notion of “something planted;” such as “construction for an industrial process,” 1789, at first with reference to the set-up of machinery, later also the building; also slang meaning “a spy” (1812). Many of these follow similar developments in the French form of the word. German Pflanz, Irish cland, Welsh plant are from Latin.
2. The solar chimney power plant has been developed twenty years ago. Against the conventional alternative energy sources it has two advantages. Firstly it is not technically difficult to realise and secondly it nearly needs nothing of natural materials. Conventional solar cells have the disadvantage of an expensive current and a not environmentally friendly manufacturing and waste disposal. But the assumptions for an solar chimney power plant are a big enough amount of space and a big enough amount of insolation. Especially in countries with desert regions are these assumption in existence.
3. The concept of a solar chimney power plant was suggested in the 1970s.
S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=solar&searchmode=none (last access: 26 January 2015). 2. SCPP – http://goo.gl/48WtCz (last access: 26 January 2015). 3. SolarEn – http://goo.gl/v4ru0f (last access: 26 January 2015).
SYN: single flow upwind system, solar tower power station, solar tower, solar chimney power station, solar chimney power generator.
S: GDT (last access: 26 January 2015)
CR: solar energy
