Comprehensive review of solar chimney systems for enhanced desalination: Configurations, performance, and integration strategies

This paper presents a comprehensive review of integrating solar chimney power plants with desalination technologies, a novel solution for the co-generation of electricity and freshwater to address global water scarcity and sustainable energy demands. The study systematically analyzes various facilitated integration methods, including the direct coupling to solar stills, combinations with condensers and membrane distillation, and hybridization with photovoltaic panels and other external energy systems. Elaborate additions such as wind supercharging and vortex generation are also critically examined. Important results indicate that modified solar stills coupled with a chimney and condensers achieve an 8.8% greater efficiency, producing 5.1 L/m²/d. Furthermore, connected systems demonstrate remarkable performance improvements of up to 158%. Hybrid combinations, including those utilizing waste heat and photovoltaics, significantly added 30–45% to the annual energy output and facilitated continuous, round-the-clock operation. Economic analyses confirm that while high upfront costs remain a barrier, specific strategic optimizations can increase the net present value by more than 400%. The research conclusively indicates that this synergistic integration offers a highly attractive, high-potential alternative to stand-alone systems, demonstrating significantly higher overall efficiency, improved financial viability, and superior environmental friendliness through maximized solar energy utilization, significant life-cycle carbon emission reductions, and minimization of brine-related ecological impacts compared to conventional desalination.