Deep in an Australian desert, an entrepreneurial renewable-energy company called EnviroMission is building a 1600 foot high solar tower that when activated will produce enough electricity to power 100,000 homes, the equivalent of a small city.
The concept is simple and based on the fact that hot air rises. The tower is surrounded by a two mile wide transparent canopy sloping up towards the tower that will superheat the nearby air. The tower itself will act like a vacuum, sucking the air up to the top at high velocity. The tower’s interior will be lined with wind turbines, which will generate the electricity.
Brilliant, but simple. An even taller half mile high tower is being planned for China, and EnviroMission is scouting the American Southwest for another location.
It’s innovations like this that will cut our oil dependence and global warming emissions, one step at a time.
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