Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Chimneys

Climate change is increasingly becoming a significant issue globally and the use of solar thermal technology is one approach in managing the world’s environment. There is now greater use of renewable energy sources in order to minimize the depletion of energy resources while providing an environmentally-friendly energy source that has minimal impact on the environment. It is thus important to be able to assess the environmental impact of different types of solar thermal technologies in order to have an understanding of the actual impact of solar thermal on the environment. Most solar thermal technologies need to use water in the production process to produce electricity. The most viable place to produce solar energy is in extremely hot climates like deserts where there is not much water to choose from. Most of the time water comes from sources that are far away and becomes expensive to transport the water to the solar plant sites. There is one solar thermal technology that does not require water to produce electricity. It is called Solar Chimney or Solar updraft tower. This paper will assess the environmental impact of Solar Chimneys across its life cycle using the Life Cycle Assessment approach (LCA). The contribution of this paper is providing further understanding of the environmental impact of solar chimneys across its life cycle particularly as new technologies in solar technology continue to be developed.