The solar updraft tower

en.wikipedia.org...


It's a big tower surrounded by glass. The air under the glass gets heated by the sun and goes up trough the tower spinning the generators
This technology is very simple, almost perfect I say, one such tower could work for hundreds of years if maintained

Australia plans to build one with a collection area of 7km in diameter.
Spain built one with an area of 244 m diameter, it worked for 8 years and generated some 50kW at it's maximum, until it was closed due to "structural problems"

I would like to see these towers wherever there is room for them, their simplicity is inspiring

[edit on 3-12-2007 by pai mei]

[edit on 3-12-2007 by pai mei]

Simple, beautiful, environmentally friendly, and the energy source is free.


Kill it. Kill it a lot.

i have seen the one in Spain when it was operational, it was amazing,

have you seen the mirrored array they are building in Portugal ??

snoopyuk

Originally posted by pai mei

Australia plans to build one with a collection area of 7km in diameter.
Spain built one with an area of 244 m diameter, it worked for 8 years and generated some 50MW at it's maximum, until it was closed due to "structural problems"

I would like to see these towers wherever there is room for them, their simplicity is inspiring

[edit on 3-12-2007 by pai mei]

Hi there,

Well, the former Australian government liked to dangle the carrot of building it, however, in reality nothing concrete has happened in seven years. This is from the company that plans to build the towers', recent report to shareholders.

www.enviromission.com.au...

. . . EnviroMission is also cognisant that development certainty has never appeared more challenged
than after the former Federal Liberal Government’s award of substantial Low Emission Technology
Demonstration Fund (LETDF) grants to ‘clean coal’ technologies ahead of renewable energy
technologies.

That challenge was further increased following the then Federal Liberal Government’s call for nuclear
energy development as the panacea to Australia’s future electricity needs.

The old party also announced a completely different plan to build a solar collector plant in the same region. Never happened.

On the other hand, the new Prime Minister ratified the Kyoto Protocol, five minutes after being sworn in. Who knows what could happen?



Our new environment minister, former Midnight Oil front man, Peter Garrett.

thanks for this post all alternative polutionfree energy is the way to go!

Originally posted by Bluess
thanks for this post all alternative polutionfree energy is the way to go!

Well, let's not get carried away with the "pollution free" thing. Even building one of these towers is going to naturally decimate the local environment. Think also about all the materials that have to be mined to make it, and all the associated equipment and people that will have to be around to maintain it and the turbine generators and the switching equipment needed to get the electricity into the grid. So add the environmental impact of mining the copper and stringing the wires. You can also possibly debate the notion of electromagnetic pollution and its affect on local people and wildlife.

P.S. - You also need to consider that generating more power doesn't just mean more power for people who already exist. More power means everything expands, more people can afford to live, more houses are built, more babies are born, etc. Power helps make everything (even polluting things) develop and grow.

But ultimately we'll have to let the market decide. If such a machine can generate electricity cheaper (but not so cheap that an investor couldn't realize a profit), then it will be a success.

[edit on 3-12-2007 by Nohup]

Good thread Pai me, I saved the Wik page to bookmarks. Interesting how they always seem to want to relate this type of advanced technology to $$$. Reduce it is more like it. I suppose they have already figured ways to tax us for even the air we breath, it's called air pollution to which they do not seem to want to change. I just can't wait for my next life as it will assuredly be in a more advanced civilization. One where it is more about quality and innovation than quantity and erosion. Long time no see Pai me, good to see you around.

Originally posted by fingapointa


On the other hand, the new Prime Minister ratified the Kyoto Protocol, five minutes after being sworn in. Who knows what could happen?

While common sense would tell you that environmentalist leaders would be pushing for alternative fuels and clean energy, in reality the Kyoto protocol is merely a way for the industrialized rich to tax the 3rd world nations in an effort to keep them from industrializing.

On the road to becoming a country like the United States, a newcomer must build a lot of coal-fired power plants. Under this agreement, it will not be economically possible to do so.


It's just another way of keeping the poor folks down.

here is a link to the set-up in Portugal,

www.treehugger.com...

www.azobuild.com...

it is going to be the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power project,

What a great idea. They could have been doing this in the American SW decades ago.

reply to post by dionysius9


I would add that Kyoto is also a way of reducing the middle class in the industrialized nations to poor folk status.

You really gotta admire those portoguese...they like the green power....here is another idea i thought interesting that they did...its old but its clever IMO

www.guardian.co.uk...

How elegant is that...I love it. Shame it won't work in Scotland tho...but it would solve so many energy problems in much warmer climates that have almost unlimited sunshine. I wonder what the structural problems in Spain were. Thing like this should last centuries if built correctly.