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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > "Tower of Power" Offers Fresh Take on Solar Energy

"Tower of Power" Offers Fresh Take on Solar Energy
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greenamp
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:15 AM
 
http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/01/tech...ower0802.biz2/



Acting as a giant greenhouse, the solar collector will superheat the air with radiation from the sun. Hot air rises, naturally, and the tower will operate as a giant vacuum. As the air is sucked into the tower, it will produce wind to power an array of turbine generators clustered around the structure.

The result: enough clean, green electricity to power some 100,000 homes without producing a particle of pollution or a wisp of planet-warming gases.

"We're aiming to be competitive with the coal people," says Davey, 60. "We're filling a gap in the renewable-energy market that has never been able to be filled before."

And although its final dimensions are still being tweaked, the 50-megawatt Tapio Station plant is just the small model: A half-mile-tall version is in the works for China, and EnviroMission is scouting sites in the American Southwest for other possible skyscraping power plants.
Pretty cool idea.
     
Rumor
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:23 AM
 
Is this the one in Australia?
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greenamp  (op)
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:24 AM
 
Yeah.
     
Rumor
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:25 AM
 
Scratch that, it's the same article I read. It would interesting to see these things start popping up.
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greenamp  (op)
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:27 AM
 
It's 1600 feet tall and 160 feet in circumference. Not sure how big the Sears tower is.
     
Rumor
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Aug 3, 2006, 02:44 AM
 
The distance to the upper roof is 1,450 feet, 7 inches (442 m), measured from the east entrance. In February 1982, two television antennas were added to the structure, bringing its total height to 1,707 feet (520 m). The western antenna was later extended to 1,729 feet (527 m) on June 5, 2000 to improve reception of local NBC station WMAQ-TV.
Got this from Wikipedia.
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Nicko
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Aug 3, 2006, 05:04 AM
 
wow, thats awsome.
     
analogika
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Aug 3, 2006, 05:37 AM
 
     
memento
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Aug 3, 2006, 07:25 AM
 
1600 ft tall, 50MW and this is a small model? They want to compete with coal? They'll have to biuld one 16,000 feet tall. Not that coal is all that great, but it is a lot of power in a relatively small space. And they have little chance of competing with natural gas. Neat idea though.
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Eriamjh
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:28 PM
 
Actually, tall buildings have been doing the "air sucking" effect for years. It happens as heat rises inside the building. They just have never taken advantage of it.

All they have to do is find a way to harness the breeze passing through and you have electricity.

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version
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:29 PM
 
Free energy; it's all I'\ll say.
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by version
Free energy; it's all I'\ll say.
It won't be free.
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version
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by Rumor
It won't be free.

Yeah, if you count putting some back-breaking work into it
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:39 PM
 
If you count recovering the millions of dollars it takes to build one.
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version
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by Rumor
If you count recovering the millions of dollars it takes to build one.

millionS? noooo, my friend, thousands!!!!
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olePigeon
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Aug 3, 2006, 06:43 PM
 
They first proposed the idea in the early 90s. I remember reading about it in my Popular Science Magazine way-back-when. It's a huge tower with turbines, solar panels on the sides, and a greenhouse at the base. The heat from the greenhouse shoots up through the tower and rotates the turbines. It's also HUGE.
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UNTeMac
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Aug 3, 2006, 09:25 PM
 
Cool idea. I can image a farm of these things in the Nevada desert. You'd just have to separate them at the distance of their shadows. I wonder if it really needs to be so tall if you just build a lot of them.
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Aug 3, 2006, 09:38 PM
 
I wonder if this thing stands up by itself due to the upward wind, or does it need a solid structure.
     
Brass
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Aug 3, 2006, 11:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by memento
1600 ft tall, 50MW and this is a small model? They want to compete with coal? They'll have to biuld one 16,000 feet tall. Not that coal is all that great, but it is a lot of power in a relatively small space. And they have little chance of competing with natural gas. Neat idea though.
I don't think they're planning to compete with coal on the amount of space it occupies to produce the same amount of energy, but rather on the amount it costs to produce the energy. In some places there are vast amounts of desert where this sort of thing would be ideal.
     
Gossamer
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Aug 3, 2006, 11:16 PM
 
Originally Posted by version
millionS? noooo, my friend, thousands!!!!
BS. Unless you can prove you're some sort of engineer with experience in this field, or can reference one, you shouldn't claim you know costs.
     
greenamp  (op)
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Aug 3, 2006, 11:34 PM
 
They are a bit more expensive right now than coal plants, with a 200MW tower costing about $670 million., camparable to a 200MW coal plant ranging from $400-600 million. This would no doubt go down if production got popular.
source

But the only carbon emissions emitted from a Solar Tower happen during it's construction. That's a pretty significant difference from coal plants.
     
Brass
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Aug 4, 2006, 12:55 AM
 
Originally Posted by greenamp
They are a bit more expensive right now than coal plants, with a 200MW tower costing about $670 million., camparable to a 200MW coal plant ranging from $400-600 million. This would no doubt go down if production got popular.
source

But the only carbon emissions emitted from a Solar Tower happen during it's construction. That's a pretty significant difference from coal plants.
That is the cost of THE FIRST solar tower. Production cost of subsequent ones would be comparable to coal (possibly less).

However, it is not the construction cost that makes the difference here. The ongoing costs are vastly different. Both systems would require similar maintenance on turbines (I'm guessing here). But coal requires ongoing costs of fuel, and furnaces and steam equipment, etc.

Fuel costs are where the major differences are going to be. And solar wins hands down here.
     
analogika
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Aug 4, 2006, 02:44 AM
 
Originally Posted by memento
1600 ft tall, 50MW and this is a small model? They want to compete with coal? They'll have to biuld one 16,000 feet tall. Not that coal is all that great, but it is a lot of power in a relatively small space. And they have little chance of competing with natural gas. Neat idea though.
Fast-forward fifty years and these things look mighty competitive.
     
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Aug 4, 2006, 03:59 AM
 
OK, here's how this would play out in America:

Currently, we are used to paying "A" amount for our utilities. The current utility companies pay "B" amount to create said energy and they make a profit of "C".

Tower of Power costs "X" amount to create same amount of energy. They charge the same "A" amount as we already pay and they make a profit of "Y", which is significantly more than the "C" amount made by the old guys.

Customers never notice the difference, and someone gets rich at our expense.

Well, it's CLEAN anyway.
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