This work provides technical and economic feasibility of installing a solar chimney power-water distillation plant (SCPWDP) in the port of Aqaba in Jordan. A mathematical model for the SCPWDP has been developed and validated. A full year of weather conditions data has been processed, where water and electricity productions have been estimated. The results show that the SCPWDP can produce 481,440 kWh of electricity and 123,753 ton of distilled water yearly simultaneously. The economic analysis shows that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for the SCPWDP is $1.86/kWh. The cost estimate seems reasonable once compared with other studies. However, from economical point of view the LCOE of SCPWDP requires a further decrease in order to make it economically feasible. The sensitivity analysis shows that increasing the chimney height of the SCPWDP would increase the production of electricity, and hence, decreases the LCOE. However, increasing the chimney height would have a marginal improvement since it increases both capital and operation expenditures.

This study presents a novel design that combines cooling tower (CT) and traditional solar chimney power plant (SCPP) technologies for electricity generation and seawater desalination. The proposed hybrid solar chimney power plant (HSCPP) shares the operation of the chimney part and the bi-directional turbine between the SCPP and CT, allowing alternative operation of the CT during the nighttime and the SCPP during the daytime, and achieving continuous system utilization. The performance of the HSCPP design was validated against baseline models using 1 year of weather data from the city of Aqaba in Jordan. Results revealed that the HSCPP has the potential to produce 50% electricity (528 MWh/year) higher than the traditional SCPP (365 MWh/year). The annual seawater desalination capacity of the HSCPP was estimated at 138300 m 3 , which is 1.5 folds higher than the traditional SCPP. The HSCPP reduced the annual CO 2 emissions by 40% (500 tons) compared to traditional SCPP with annual revenue of US$190 000. Furthermore, the results show that the HSCPP is 1.4 times more efficient than the traditional SCPP. The HSCPP achieved a system utilization factor of 0.73% compared to 0.52% for the traditional SCPP. The HSCPP showed promising sustainable and economical technology for the production of electricity and water while reducing the emission of GHG.

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