1-Kilometer Tower Of Power

!splut writes: "New Scientist has a story about a plan for an interesting new alternative power design. Australian company EnviroMission has recieved approval to construct a 130-meter wide, 1-kilometer tall tower that will generate electricity from currents of air heated within a 7-kilometer greenhouse surrounding the tower's base. It is predicted to generate 670-gigawatt hours of energy per year, providing a clean source of energy for some 200,000 homes."

Comments

watt-hours per year???

[crow]

What a strange measure.

While I realize that the output won't be constant, an average output would be more interesting to most people (at least to me). With 8766 hours per year, the plant is producing on average about 76 megawatts. I seem to recall that the average house draws 2 kilowatts, so that's only 38,000 homes, not 200,000 homes. So their numbers are wrong, my information is wrong, or Australian homes use only one fifth the power of an average American home.

Or is my math wrong?

Older Slashdot Story on the Tower

[Lars T.]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/12/10/061020 3&mode=nested&tid=134

These don't go *in* cities.

[bill_mcgonigle]

A one mile tall tower could create some castostophic effects should it fall. Beyond just terrorism, accidents still happen.

Worst case scenario, it doesn't crumble under its own weight and falls straight over, with the top landing 1 km from the base. OK, so don't build around it for 1km. 3.14km**2 of land. So, plant corn around it. They don't build any power plants in cities - real estate is too expensive - they send the power over high-voltage AC from a distance.

These would be an air traffic hazard. What a stupid idea.

Good point. We'll get started right away taking down those pesky mountains too.