Posted Earlier:
1% "Thermal Efficiency" based on (Ti-To)/Ti (The Carnot Efficiency)
with outside/incoming air "temperature dilution" would be overly optimistic
no matter how high the chimney/stack.
Ain't much "chi" in a Tall Texas Chi-mney, Richard.
About 4 square miles of horizontal flat-plate collector (with radiative or
cooling tower heat rejection) using water as a heat transfer-storage medium
to pressurize sealed tanks of ammonia, propane, or a freon refrigerant for powering
expansion engines/turbines could produce about 200 megawatts
around the clock.
One could do this in the back yard with a couple of 20 pound propane tanks
containing a few pounds of propane, immersed in insulated-water-filled drums
using a condensate return pump, an expansion "engine" along with
some smart electronics, a collector-radiator panel and a swamp cooler.
Fred
"According to model calculations, an updraft power plant with an output of 200 MW would need a collector 7 kilometres in diameter (total area of about 38 km²) and a 1000 metre high chimney.[2] The 38 km² collecting area is expected to extract about 0.5% of the solar power (1 kW/m²) that falls upon it. Because no data are available to test these models on a large-scale updraft tower there remains uncertainty about the reliability of these calculations."
Stack Effect Equations:
Wind Turbine Power:
From Dan Fink's "Wind Basics":
" Wind Power (watts) = 1/2 *air density *swept area* wind velocity^3
