The Melbourne-based renewable-energy company EnviroMission aims to build the world’s first commercial ‘solar tower’ power station, early next year. The tower will be 1,600-foot high rising from the earth. Taller than the Sears Tower, it would be a 260-foot-diameter cylinder encircled by a two-mile-diameter transparent canopy at ground level.
Acting as a giant greenhouse, the solar collector will be about 8 feet tall at the perimeter. The collector will gradually slope up to a height of 50 to 60 feet at the tower’s base, superheating the air with radiation from the sun. With the hot air rising naturally, the tower — operating as a giant vacuum – will suck air into it. The tower in turn, will produce wind for powering an array of turbine generators built around the structure.
The clean and green electricity generated will be capable of powering some 100,000 homes. To add to this, it will produce neither a polluting particle nor a planet-warming gas wisp.
