A large number of researchers have paid great attention to solar chimney (SC) power generating technology, but only a few have studied the chimney configuration. Taking a 10MW SC system as an example, the physical and mathematical models illustrating the fluid flow, heat transfer and output power features of the system are established. Based on constraints such as equal chimney bottom section area or equal chimney surface area, the impact of several sizes of three different chimney configurations upon the chimney outlet air temperature and velocity, system output power and efficiency is analyzed and the influence of the height-to-diameter ratio (H/D) of the cylindrical chimney on system performance is studied as well. After a comprehensive analysis of system output power and efficiency, it is proved by the numerical simulation that the cylindrical chimney would be the best choice among the three basic configurations, whose optimum H/D value ranges from 6 to 8. Copyright (c) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.