Solar Tower of Power

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Companies are continuing to look for innovative ways to provide cheap, efficient alternative energy. The Solar Tower is a solar power unit that can serve a small city. EnviroMission Ltd is one such company in Australia who is trying to power 200,000 with this German technology. The “Solar Tower technology is not simply solar energy. Solar Tower technology is created when the sun’s radiation is used to heat a large body of air, which is then forced by the laws of physics (hot air rises) to move as a hot wind through large turbines to generate electricity. A solar thermal power station using Solar Tower technology will create the conditions to cause hot wind to flow continuously through its turbines to generate electricity.”

One of my initial questions was, “What about power at night?” They also place solar collecting cells at the base of the unit that releases heat at night to power the turbines. The concept is simple: heat air and allow rising air to power turbines. This Australian concept was actually born in Germany, by a company called Schlaich Bergermann and Partners. They ran a test model, one which was 600 fee tall, from 1982-1989. It proved effective, as SBP noted, “During this 32-month period, the plant ran, fully automatically, an average of 8.9 hours per day for a total of 8611 operating hours. One person at the most was needed for supervision.” This test period had interruptions and testing, hence the month total. But the test showed the feasibility for this tower to work. EnviroMission is hoping to have their Australian tower completed by 2010.

[tags]EnviroMission, Solar Tower, Thermal power[/tags]Source:EnviroMission

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