Tech | January 28, 2012 | 17 comments

Tallest Solar Tower Set for Arizona

source: http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=17784

Image
Dagum
In the western desert state of Arizona, a company called EnviroMission is planning to build a new solar tower, the first of its kind, an ambitious new way to produce energy with heat from the sun.

When completed in 2015, the tower, located in La Paz County, will be the tallest structure in the United States, and the second tallest in the world. It is the first of two such towers planned by EnviroMission for Arizona.

While it is a solar power source, it does not rely on the same technology as solar panels.

The solar tower has a wide greenhouse at the bottom 4.8 kilometres in diametre, which is heated by the sun. On the principle that hot air rises, the heat then gets sucked into the gigantic 800-metre-high tower, displacing cool air and pushing it up through the tower, causing turbines located just above the base to turn.

Causing turbines to turn is actually the premise of most of today’s most prevalent sources of energy.

For example, most dirty sources of energy like nuclear and coal are simply ways to generate heat to boil water to spin turbines. It is not as if splitting an atom, or burning coal by itself, generates electricity; these technologies are merely ways to create heat....

It has become a popular saying among anti-nuclear activists that using nuclear technology to boil water is akin to using a chain saw to slice butter....


Continued at:

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=17784
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Green,   Culture,   10 more
  2. tags:
    Arizona,  Solar Power,  Renewable Energy
  3.     
    |

17 comments // Tallest Solar Tower Set for Arizona

  • Gravity_Man
  • circlesquared
    • +2
      circlesquared  

    • it is great to see us move away from fossil and nuke fuel; however, the scale and expense of a project such as this will do nothing to reduce the control of the few...a few people will still be making a great deal of money off many many people. The last thing they want for us is our freedom.

    • 4 months ago
  • rerushg
    • +3
      rerushg  
    • circlesquared:

      True. And if I seem enthusiastic below it's only because I love cool tech and ANYTHING is better than dirty fuels. But it's the American capitalistic way: go big, go expensive, go phallic. Gimme that ROI.
      My personal conviction is that we should be moving away from centralized energy tech and toward decentralized tech; with focus on the municipal and community level. Less major investment... economics of volume design and fabrication.... more cottage industry..... more support jobs.
      It's a long story and, no doubt, one you already know. :)

    • 4 months ago
  • circlesquared
    • +1
      circlesquared  
    • rerushg:

      more need to see from the perspective that value is in our freedom and value is in people and planet not in a dollar...one offers happiness the other takes it away even though it doesn't truly exist. I would love to see humanity free to be happy in 6,840,507,000 ways.

    • 4 months ago
  • remanns
  • thedirtman
  • rerushg
    • +2
      rerushg  

    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr4d1hPPug0

      Here's the video. Note that EnviroMission is an Aussie company that's been trying to do this down there since about 2001. No luck. You'd think it would be a natural there with so much open land. Big Money carries the day.
      Note too that China already has one of these babies already completed and starting up now. No service data on that.

    • 4 months ago
  • Dagum
  • EmperorThan
  • cmc101
  • SultanOfSwat
  • kvb1
    • 0
      kvb1  
    • SultanOfSwat:

      SOS,
      an excellent comment to an inspiring post. The only down side to renewable is the amount of space they require. Current technology prevents us from capturing 100% of the available energy that reaches the planet from the sun. However, as these new energy source come on line, the fight to be the first to patent that technology will drive a R&D boom, and jobs like like no other since the start of the industrial revolution.

    • 4 months ago
  • trut
  • mikem0487
    • +2
      mikem0487  

    • Very interesting. This is the first time I have heard of this technology and cannot wait to see what it brings to the future of renewable energy!

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • +2
      Gravity_Man  

    • I think my Advanced Solar Cooker system combined with steam and a horizontal VAWT would equal that big tower. If not I could build another one and pass it.

      However, I think the boys had a great time building it.

    • 4 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • rerushg
    • +5
      rerushg  

    • Good post, Dagum. Thanks. Very interesting technology that I've followed for years.
      Despite what the article says, though, it's not the first. There was a project in Spain built back in 1982 to test concept. It ran for eight years.
      Also, China completed a massive solar tower in late 2010 and put it online. We don't know how it's doing.

    • 4 months ago
more from Tech:
from the community

top videos