Tech | July 27, 2011 | 66 comments

Solar Power Company Plans Giant Arizona Tower, Second Tallest Structure on Earth

source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/solar-power-giant-arizona-tower-planned-generate-clean/stor...

Image
JanforGore
In the desert of western Arizona, a power company proposes to build the world's tallest chimney -- a tower, 2,600 feet tall, that would be the centerpiece of a giant non-polluting power plant, making electricity from the heat of the sun.

The project has been started by an Australian company called EnviroMission, which says it hopes, by the time it is finished construction in early 2015, to provide enough electricity to power the equivalent of 200,000 homes. It would burn no fuel. Nothing quite like it has ever been tried in America before.

In fact, nothing quite like it has been tried anywhere else in the world, aside from a small test project in Spain. The finished tower would be the second-tallest structure on the planet, just a hundred feet shorter than the Burj Khalifa luxury skyscraper in Dubai. It would be twice as tall as New York's Empire State Building.

"It would be conceited to say we have the solution," said Chris Davey, the president of EnviroMission's U.S. operations in Phoenix, "but it's a reasonable energy alternative."

When one mentions solar power, most people probably think of so-called photovoltaics -- those big, flat panels that have been used to power spacecraft, but so far have been considered too expensive for large-scale commercial use. EnviroMission plans something very different.

Its design consists of a giant, round greenhouse-like structure, under which air would become trapped and get very hot -- around 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hot air naturally tries to rise, so it would rush toward the tall tower in the center. On the way, it would pass through any of 32 turbines, whose turning blades would run generators and create electricity. The plant would burn no fuel, emitting no greenhouse gases.

"It's a very favorable operation," said John Drum, a member of the local county board of supervisors. "It'll bring quite a few jobs to our county, and when it's done there will be 40 to 50 people to run it."

It would also draw attention to this isolated place, off state route 95 north of Quartzsite, Ariz. Supporters say the view from the top on a clear day would be stupendous.

Clean Solar Energy, Even at Night

EnviroMission says the beauty of its design is that the plant doesn't only work in blazing sunlight. All it needs is for there to be some solar heating. The company says it has checked out possible sites in Kansas, Pennsylvania and rural New Jersey -- cooler, cloudier places than Arizona. Davey says the company's calculations show the chimney would even generate power at night. The air in the canopy would be warmed by the sand beneath it, which would have absorbed excess heat during the day.

"It's incredibly benign," Davey said. "No water, no dangerously high temperatures, no 'death rays' from mirrors, very few moving parts."


More at the link
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Green,   Culture,   3 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Economy,  Energy,  Earth,  10 more
  3.     
    |

66 comments // Solar Power Company Plans Giant Arizona Tower, Second Tallest Structure on Earth

  • manfreddrake
    • 0
      manfreddrake  

    • While overseas, in a tropical area, I used 200ft of garden hose on a tin roof to send heated water to the (normally coal heated) water heater, The water was always steaming hot!

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • manfreddrake:

      Yeah, really, and the hose was lined with asphalt rubber too eh? So how long did ya drink the asphalt-steeped water hmm? Methinks it was hallucenogenic? How close am I? Cheaper than pot eh? hahaha Legal too no nosey neighbors turned you in for sniffing steamed water out of a K-Mart garden hose!!! I RECKON THAT MAKES YOU THE MAN!!!

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • Prijedor
  • Gravity_Man
  • Bmad
    • 0
      Bmad  

    • Too bad that it will be seen as a Jan Brewer accomplishment. Too bad its not someplace less hateful and deserving.

    • 10 months ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • +1
      CreditFigaro  

    • These systems are pretty cool. Only 50 people to manage the plant?

      That's a labor cost of $2,500,000 a year.

      To power 200,000 homes.

      That's $12.50/house

      Labor is the largest cost... that means that this thing could really destroy conventional grid power.

      Imagine paying $3 a month for your electric bill!

    • 10 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • CreditFigaro
  • bailey78
    • +2
      bailey78  

    • They can build one in my back yard any time they want. Well Ok it may have to be a bit smaller but I would donate a acre or so to let them put one up.

    • 10 months ago
  • ArthurDent
    • +2
      ArthurDent  

    • Awsome!!

      There is a company in Spain with 24/7 solar they use a mses storage for the excess heat and use that in the evening. Mses is toxic but can be managed. It's a hell of a lot better an option than coal fired plants.

    • 10 months ago
  • PigFarmington
  • hurleyburly
  • coolplanet
  • EmileZ
  • jackshin
    • +4
      jackshin  
    • Image
    • EmileZ:

      Emilez,I second that thought, but there is some good news for common joe, check this out;

      http://hubpages.com/hub/SolarPowerShingles
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_shingles

      there are called photovoltaic shingles

      I found this out from a contractor, who recommended changing the shingles in three years. Apparently, solar power shingles will be out by then and it will be on the second generation, with hopefully most of the flaws eliminated.

      However, the low-end 10 year product will be as expensive as a 40 year shingle without the embeded panals.

      Now the question is how not to be on the grid, so we are not just changing corporate masters.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • jackshin:

      60 years ago homes had tin roofs. When a rain came the water running off the hot metal should've taught us something. But, what th' heck, this is more fancy. Much of it went up in steam... Can anybody spell 200 degrees?

    • 10 months ago
  • EmileZ
  • EmileZ
  • bailey78
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  

    • Solar, hmm. Where's the Beef? Where's the Real Energy inventions? When does REAL MEAT GET PUT ON THE PLATE?

      This is a TOY. It isn't even an appetizer. 7,000,000,000 phooey!

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -3
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      This is Dachau. Pound yur knives & forks on the table for real food, not this tripe imitation garbage. Let's have TESLA-ON-THE-HOOF quit playing around. Universal Energy reaches our planet radiated at us FROM EVERY STAR IN THE UNIVERSE.

      Stupid scientists with their toys. Okay, where's my Erector set I want one to play with too.

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
    • +1
      squarethecircle  
    • Gravity_Man:

      now there is a lack of walls and reference to another that didn't believe in them either. Sucks that smart guys like that, thinking for the betterment of us all, end up broke and discredited. Time to change it up GMan

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      I am like Burt in Tremors, out of Ammo. But I succeeded too! Because unlike Tesla I skipped the middle part & went straight to poor & discredited!!! Which makes me BETTER THAN TESLA. HA HA!

      So, mi compadre, if YOU had an engine that only had 3 moving parts that rivalled nuclear power plants WHAT WOULD YOU DO? And before you answer remember => you totally lack a PhD to be permitted to write an article in any accepted magazines.

      And everyone wants ya to fail because it makes them look real stupid.

      GO!!!!! THE CLOCK IS TICKING.

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      Those fellows are being allowed to succeed because they are from AUSTRALIA and allowing Asutralians to come to America and Save our IMPOTENT MALES TOO LAZY TO LIFT A TEXTBOOK IS WHAT THEY WANT.

      This isn't about Energy, it's about slapping American men around.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      If I had finished welding class 28 years ago I could make it here but I had to quit after the first night. The classroom wasn't heated and I was plunged into hypothermia and near shock, never went back. I actually have a small welder here but last time I tried charging a battery with it it didn't seem to work so great.

      WE'RE ALL HERE OUT OF AMMO!!! I need a Patsy Cline record.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      I appreciate your positive upbeat attitude but one guy up against a well-heeled well-funded football team on his field isn't something a person can do much against => at least that's been my experience for 22 years now.

      Three and four years ago I had an awesome fungus get inside my right sinus, along with all my other medical issues not getting attention from local HAYSEED DOCTORS, and the fungus was growing roots back into my brain, and also forward into the cheekbones, nerves and cheek flesh.

      Unless you've ever tangled with fungus, along with the Lyme's coiled-tail spirocheate bacteria that were also in me at that time assaulting my spinal cord and brain from the inside, you might not grasp the full import of how much they drain out of you. I'm still in recovery.

      I'm not shovel-ready. That's the domain of Barack Hussein Obama. I assume he doesn't have FUNGUS IN HIS BRAIN AND LYME'S IN HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM. I could however be wrong.

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      I dunno, but the movies had the Enterprise in Space a couple hundred years in the future I think so that's probably what their plans are, shown us through the movies.

      You see it's like this Square. The overriding idea they have to keep in people's minds is Progress = Struggle. That way the masses don't realize Energy has already been solved several times over.

      Creation is too easy, so they came up with Evolution, the hard. Once we could see the Universe plainly through telescopes they had to invent a layered-over Multi-Verse, so that no matter how much people think they know they never are allowed to break the pinata.

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • -2
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      Then after he allows the big phallic tower to suceed, instead of my Godly engines, hehe, his next act to piss on men is to drop an asteroid or meteor across it to destroy it just like he likes to destroy a man's penis as it goes rock hard in death during all these stupid wars.

      Satan has not changed. He hates males today just like he hated them before the Great Flood and took their beautiful women from them to bed.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • squarethecircle
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      The reason it will "rival nuclear power" is because unlike a combustion engine, when the piston comes back up it does not compress the air. That's called "freewheeling".

      All the horsepower created by the steam explosion is going into spinning hydroelectric generators. Since it only has 3 moving parts it has an outrageously tiny amount of friction!!!

      The one negative is called "Reverse Hysteresis" and that's from generators. The larger a generator & the faster the generator turns creates a negative force.

      But you have that in any such system using generators. The steam hammer doing freewheeling more than compensates for reverse hysteresis.
      HAMMER DOWN!!!

    • 10 months ago
  • ampersand
    • +3
      ampersand  

    • I applaud any effort to create sustainable energy systems, however, as just a minor note to correct a bit of hyperbole in the text given above, I don't think the solar tower array in Spain is a "just small test project.

      A short list of operating solar thermal power stations:

      "These include the 354 megawatt (MW) Solar Energy Generating Systems power installation in the USA, Solnova Solar Power Station (Spain, 150 MW), Andasol solar power station (Spain, 100 MW), Nevada Solar One (USA, 64 MW), PS20 solar power tower (Spain, 20 MW), and the PS10 solar power tower (Spain, 11 MW).
      The 968 MW Blythe Solar Power Project, located in California's Mojave Desert, is the world’s largest solar thermal power plant project currently under construction.

      The solar thermal power industry is growing rapidly, with about 1.17 gigawatts (GW) of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants online as of 2011.[2] 582 megawatts of them are located in Spain, and the United States has 507 megawatts of capacity.
      About 17.54 GW of CSP projects are under development worldwide, and the United States leads with about 8.67 GW. Spain ranks second with 4.46 GW in development, followed by China with 2.5 GW."

    • 10 months ago
  • squarethecircle
    • +2
      squarethecircle  

    • We all know we need to head in the direction of renewable, sustainable, resources and their use, so it is exciting to see. Though part of the change of norm, business as usual, is action through awareness and consideration moving all in a better direction. Rather than use this huge amount of resources for the benefit of a corporation, a few......wouldn't a better path be to use the same resources to create smaller local solar energy devices that could free the people of those 200,000 homes so they don't have to pay for energy at all. We are brainwashed to think within or barely outside of our current boundaries, but it is time to break those down. Basic resources should be included in our rights as they should be included in the planet's. If we harvest and use resources wisely there is plenty for all, if we consume resources and pay a few to do so we all have nothing.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • squarethecircle
  • nashkildare
  • nanac
  • lordsbassman
  • lordsbassman
  • lifestudentno83
  • Schnookums
    • +3
      Schnookums  

    • I would be interested in the figures of when they expect the EROEI numbers to turn positive for this project. It's a very exciting concept.

    • 10 months ago
  • StandaboveUnderstand
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -1
      Warren_Merrill  

    • Then there's the American know how and ability to take a potentially good idea and kill it ...

      1) There is still a thicket of regulations to be dealt with.

      2) Environmental advocates are conflicted too. "This thing seems to be a weird black hole at the moment," said Vashti Supplee, the director of bird conservation for the Arizona chapter of the National Audubon Society. She said it's possible that birds, migrating along the nearby Colorado River, would be confused by it. "I don't know what's going on with it."

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • artemis6
  • squarethecircle
  • artemis6
  • squarethecircle
    • +1
      squarethecircle  
    • artemis6:

      so many resources though and so much space used...the desert is alive too...if we have to build it couldn't it be done in space? Talk about growing things under it as well as safer from natural destruction of said project after such an investment.

    • 10 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • NiceN
    • +3
      NiceN  

    • Can't wait. I hope we as humans look back at this period of time and find that oil was never a good source of energy. I just hope that the future humans know that there were some people who tried their hardest to present other sustainable, pollution-free, and efficient means of creating energy.

    • 10 months ago
  • chew_chew
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • artemis6
  • aj727b
  • JanforGore
more from Tech:
from the community

top videos