Tallest tower in the world planned for the Outback

Posted by Southern Man on Jan 04, 2002 at 14:51
(12.215.159.138)

A power company plans to build a 1,000m-high (3,280ft) solar tower in the outback of Australia that would dwarf the world's tallest structures. The tower, as wide as a football pitch and set in the centre of a glass dish 4 miles across, would cost A$1bn (£350m) to build as part of a global drive to use more renewable energy.

If completed as planned in 2006, the tower in New South Wales would be more than twice the height of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which stand at 452m.

The project is backed by the government. The company behind it, EnviroMission, hopes the 200MW solar tower will provide enough power to supply 200,000 homes a year.

The sun heats air under the glass and as the hot air rises an updraft is created in the tower that allows air to be sucked through 32 turbines, which generate power.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/story.jsp?story=366211

What can I say? First, 200MW is not very large. That is about the size of single coal/oil/gas fired units that were built in the 50's. Energy companies would build 5 or so of these sized units in one building to supply a reasonable area.

Next, they are going to get 200MW from hot air rushing up a 1000 meter stack. And just what is that hot air going to do when it gets to the top? Can anyone say "perpetual thunderstorm"?

Anyone want to stand near the base in the hurricane generated there? How much dust will it pick up and inject into the atmosphere?

This isn't very different from the I-cloned-a-baby-in-my-school-chemistry-lab crowd. The only difference seems to be in the amount of money they each want to raise. But you can be sure the envirowackos will love this and blame it's failure on not enough funding.

But I am encouraged to see the rest of the world being duped by the environmentalists also. The US has been crippled by such projects since the 70s. It's about time the rest of the world starts doing their part to squander resources and do serious environmental damage in the name of environmental caring.

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