Free Solar Power Is Hot Air
EnviroMission Solar Tower
Hot air rises, right? Wouldn’t it be grand if we had a guaranteed supply of hot air that runs electrical generator turbines and doesn’t cost a dime?
This is the idea behind the proposed EnviroMission Solar Tower. A large-scale solar electric generator that requires ZERO FUEL. <== Pause here and think about that for a minute…
| The world’s largest sun dial operates counter-clockwise. |
Hot air rises up a 1km / 3,281 ft. tall cylinder, creating a draft (partial vaccuum) which spins turbines. A free-standing structure a kilometer high? Are you kidding me? I’m not kidding.
If this thing is built, it will be taller than the under-construction Burj Dubai Tower, which is estimated to reach 700m / 2,300ft in 2009.
One 200MW power station will provide enough electricity for 200,000 households and will abate over 900,000 tons of greenhouse gases from entering the environment annually.
Estimates have placed the cost of the tower project from $800 million to $1 billion. EnviroMission has signed a memorandum of understanding with Australian Gas Light Company for AGL to take all the station’s electricity.
I first reported on this project when it was in the design phase, about five years ago. It is becoming a reality. The project has completed the Project optimization and Pre-feasability commercialization studies.
They are now working on final fesability for funding. They have chosen a site in Victoria, Australia. All that remains to be done are final designs and construction. They won’t say when they will have it completed, but as of April, 2007, the construction company also signed a contract to build a solar tower in El Paso, Texas, not far from where I live.
There is an awesome computer animated video that you can see by clicking the picture above. Clicking the headline link will take you to the EnviroMission official website.
E.J. Wilson (Zehaas)
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ozzie13 said:
That is amazing footage in that film…it is very well done.
I just wonder if the money spent, would be better off used for converting houses to solar, so they can sell their excess back to the grid..
It would probably cost similar money.
what do you think?
Ozzie
Zehaas said:
Hi, Ozzie!
You are correct. If you calculate $5,000 per home, it comes out to a billion dollars exactly. There actually is a program like that here in the states called Citizenre.
I think they are running into funding problems, though, because it’s hard to make money selling electricity back to the grid. You have to sell it at wholesale, not retail.
This scheme here — The massive Tower of Power has some advantages. It is a dramatic presence. It is centralized, so the investment group maintains control of the money flow. It will no doubt be a huge tourist attraction, and get a lot of attention on the technology.
They have already proven the technology works with a smaller tower in Manzanares Spain.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the idea of de-centralized power, and we will talk about that with my next article, which will be about Focus Fusion. It’s just nice to see something green being done with all that space and hot air you have in Australia.
– E.J. Wilson