In the Arizona desert, may appear "solar towers"

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In the Arizona desert a very ambitious and large-scale project in the field of energy may soon start. The project is being implemented by the Australian company EnviroMission, which is currently resolving the issue of buying land in the desert and is going to begin engineering work on the construction of its first full-scale solar tower. According to the plans of the Australian developers, the new tower will be simply huge in size and will become one of the tallest buildings on the planet. The height of the tower will be about 800 m, the diameter in the upper part - 130 m, and its performance can reach 200 MW. This capacity will be enough to supply at least 150 with thousands of American homes with electricity. According to calculations made by experts, after commissioning, this tower will be able to work for at least 80 years.

The choice of construction site is not accidental. The desert and the sun are inseparable concepts. For a long time the deserts have attracted like a magnet any serious companies that specialize in the field of solar energy. For this reason, the desert in Arizona has not been ignored by well-known "solar" experts. It is in Arizona that EnviroMission specialists are preparing to implement their ambitious idea to develop a powerful solar power station, which is already known as a solar tower.

The idea that underlies the construction of such a structure is quite simple. The sun's rays illuminate and heat a certain part of the surface at the foot of the tower, this area is covered with a special heat insulating material. He himself is a kind of very large greenhouse. The air heated in this "greenhouse" tends to the top, flowing to the only hole in this coating located in the center. It is in this place at the base of the solar tower that the turbines are located, which generate electrical energy at the expense of naturally ascending streams of heated air.

In the Arizona desert, may appear "solar towers"

This system is rather difficult to be taken seriously until all the necessary calculations related to the temperature difference have been made and the size of the entire structure has been repeatedly increased. This is exactly what Australian developers have done. If we place such a structure in the desert, where the surface temperature reaches 40 degrees and higher during the day, and also add to this the effect of the artificially created "greenhouse effect", then the air temperature in such a tank will reach 80-90 degrees Celsius. Therefore, it remains only to bring the size of the tank greenhouse around the solar tower to a radius of several hundred meters in order to get a sufficiently large amount of hot air.

It would be useful to increase the height of the solar tower to a height of several hundred meters (with every 100 meters away from the desert surface means a decrease in ambient temperature by 1 degrees Celsius). The greater the temperature difference, the stronger the solar tower will “pull” hot air from the bottom of the storage facility and the greater the amount of energy that turbines can produce.

The advantages of these energy sources lie on the surface:

• Since the solar tower operates due to the temperature difference, and not the absolute temperature, it can continue its work in any weather.
• Since the soil has time to heat up sufficiently in a day, it will have enough residual heat to continue working at night.
• Since the construction of a tower is best suited for a section of hot, dry soil, it is possible to build such a power plant in a more or less useless area right in the middle of the desert.
• The solar tower will require almost no maintenance, except for the rare inspection and / or minor repair of turbines. The tower “just works” from the beginning of its construction until the moment when there are structures that make up the tower.
• Such a power plant does not need raw materials for work - neither uranium, nor coal, nothing but sunlight and air, which is abundant in any desert.
• The solar tower is a completely waste-free production, it does not emit any pollutants into the Earth’s atmosphere, besides warm air; Moreover, certain areas of the "greenhouse" can even be used for its intended purpose for growing various plants in them.


It is worth noting that this technology is quite known, people have been working on such projects for over a century. So, in 1980, Spanish engineers erected a test tower with a height of 256 meters, in which heated air moved through turbines to the top. This tower generated electricity for 7 years, after which it was destroyed by a storm. In this regard, the question of the possibility of implementation rather than the high costs of the project is much more rigid. To produce substantial amounts of electricity, an object of enormous size is needed, and very large structures require very large capital investments.

The cost of construction, estimated by Australian developers, is approximately 750 million dollars. And the energy efficiency of this power plant is expected at the level of 60%, which makes such an object much more reliable and efficient than many other renewable energy sources. In addition, it is known exactly where the energy generated by such a power plant will be directed. Not so long ago, EnviroMission signed a cooperation agreement with the State Energy Agency of Southern California (pre-purchase of electrical energy for a period of 30 years). Based on the results of financial modeling, the construction of such a tower would pay off in just 11 years, and its design is designed for a lifetime of 80 years. If everything goes as planned, the “solar tower” will be able to start the transfer of electricity to the homes of Americans at the beginning of 2015.

Alternative project

But the solar tower already has competitors. This is a power plant with even greater power - up to 1,5 GW. Information about her appeared in RuNet in May 2014. It is reported that the company Clean Wind Energy has already rented a plot of land for the construction of its offspring. In this case, we are also talking about the tower, which would work by creating an artificial wind for generating electricity. Different sources indicate different construction heights, which range from 675 to 900 meters (which is 400 meters above the famous Empire State Building and skyscraper).


At the base of the huge solar tower, 120 of very large turbines will be placed immediately, as well as high-performance pumps designed to drive more than 11 billion liters of circulating water. After commissioning, the solar tower in the desert will have a huge output power, which can be compared with the energy of a high-performance hydroelectric station or wind turbines installed in an area of ​​40 thousand hectares.

The principle of operation of such an energy tower in 60-s of the twentieth century was put forward by Philip Carlson. However, in those years there were simply no funds that could be allocated for the implementation of such a project. According to available data, the cost of building such a power plant in the Arizona desert is more than 1,5 billion dollars. At the same time, the construction of such a tower can bring American wind energy to a fundamentally new level, and the energy produced by the tower will be the cleanest in the world and will allow the company to make huge money on its production.

The main idea, in contrast to the project of EnviroMission, involves the movement of air not from the bottom up, but from top to bottom. The idea is to spray water at the top of the tower, causing the hot air to cool and rush to the ground. By the time he is at the foot of the tower, his speed should reach 90 km / h, which is ideal conditions for the operation of turbines. Such a tower has its advantages over standard wind and solar energy. The installation will be able to work without problems both day and night, besides, its work does not require continuous wind and sunlight, it doesn’t even need to remove dust, like from solar cells installed in the desert, in order to keep it in working condition. The tower will continue to generate electricity as long as the air remains warm, which is very likely for a hot desert. The production of electricity itself will work from the production of its energy: about 11% of electricity will be spent on pumping water to the very top of the tower, while about ¾ of the water will be collected in its lower part.


The world's largest operating solar thermal power plant in the California Mojave Desert


Competitors in the form of nuclear power plants

The solar towers have a very real and strong competitor in the form of "good old" nuclear power plants. After a break in 30 years, the US government decided to resume their construction. The administration of the US president has allocated 6,5 billion to build a new nuclear power plant. It is reported that the new nuclear power plant should appear in the state of Georgia, where the Vogtle nuclear power plant is already operating.

In 2010, the US authorities and representatives of the Southern energy company signed an agreement on the construction of new units of this nuclear power plant.

The last, 4, power unit was handed over to the customer in the fall of 2013. Now we are talking about building a new NPP from scratch. The amount allocated for its construction will be divided between Southern Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power and the municipal authorities of Georgia. It is reported that the first tranche of this project, the company Oglethorpe and Georgia Power received another 19 February 2014 year.

Information sources:
http://www.facepla.net/index.php/the-news/energy-news-mnu/1509-solar-plant
http://radiomaster.ru/reviews/view/208
http://gearmix.ru/archives/11823
http://pronedra.ru/alternative/2014/05/06/energiy-arizona-proekt
http://pronedra.ru/atom/2014/02/19/aes-ssha
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23 comments
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  1. ICT
    +1
    3 June 2014 08: 30
    toto they oppress farmers there lol
    1. 0
      3 June 2014 17: 01
      entertaining vidio, just what drew attention, 10 people are protesting. and take ~ 5 on camera.
  2. +5
    3 June 2014 08: 35
    It certainly sounds incredible, but once the ideas of Tsiolkovsky seemed crazy to contemporaries.
  3. Dima190579
    +1
    3 June 2014 08: 36
    Interesting idea. Confuses wind and sand which will constantly interfere with work.
    1. +2
      3 June 2014 08: 51
      Quote: Dima190579
      Confuses wind and sand which will constantly interfere with work

      Yes, the wind will apply dust to the surface of the "greenhouse", you have to clean it ...
      Interestingly, if the ground under the "greenhouse" is moistened, the air flow rate will increase due to the evaporated water?
      1. +2
        3 June 2014 13: 32
        Just dust - not scary. And finely dispersed, electrostatic, how will they be cleaned? Here, a special lubricant is needed, otherwise all the active elements of the mechanism are kirdyk.
  4. Dimych from Vanino
    +2
    3 June 2014 08: 39
    Yes, they would build right away ... MEGAZORD megadrive. Once again, the filmmaker will be shot in Hollywood ... that the Solar Tower caused a global catastrophe, and James Bond, as always, will save us all.
  5. +3
    3 June 2014 08: 50
    Unfortunately, these are just ideas, and there are no alternatives for nuclear plants yet ...
    1. Nationalist
      +1
      4 June 2014 16: 12
      there are a lot of alternatives for nuclear power plants (wind, tidal, solar, thermal energy (geysers) with which you can provide all of Kamchatka), just be afraid to invest, and the most banal conservatism also plays a role after all, to push money into something completely only small units dare to innovate in rural areas, and even in the case of much cheaper electricity, oil corporations who really do not want to lose money will suffer, these are the main obstacles to progress, as it is known that thermal power plants in Russia and in the world are much bigger than nuclear power plants
  6. ramsi
    +3
    3 June 2014 09: 08
    probably a parabolic reflector under the "glass" would reduce the area and raise the temperature in the center
    1. +2
      3 June 2014 11: 28
      If you just want to send sunlight around the greenhouse, but inside you need black spraying to absorb the light. It will be very hot. Yes

      shurup Hmm, it looks like a big tornado generator. It is enough to swirl the air flow slightly and the turbogenerators will simply be sucked out of such a convenient pipe.

      Such an option is also possible, for the fight against which money will be required, and even a faint breeze in such a fool can twist the whirlwind.
      1. ramsi
        +1
        3 June 2014 11: 50
        yes, it seems, both options can be considered: both with reflection to the black entrance of the pipe, and with a completely black parabolic reflector
  7. +2
    3 June 2014 09: 11
    interesting projects. The idea is to make energy out of nothing. Carbohydrates is the solar energy accumulated over many thousands of years. Wind and hydropower - energy is again due to the heating of the air and water by the sun. The first wind heats the upper layer of air, the second lower ... As if all this beauty didn’t come back to an imbalance in nature! America already suffers from hurricanes, which lack names. Tornadoes are a common occurrence in the desert, but here you understand such a vacuum cleaner ... How I imagine myself in this greenhouse and being thrown through the blades of a turbine into space - horror ... But this is how my fountain played out. Gone with the wind in general.
    1. ramsi
      +1
      3 June 2014 09: 35
      By the way, relevant fears, if you do not cut off the dust, then raised to a height on an industrial scale, it will certainly come around
      1. +3
        3 June 2014 10: 52
        She comes around with a neighbor. Dust is the basis of condensate. Therefore, the neighbor will begin the season of endless rains and it will be possible to grow rice or produce peat later. Oh, I love to experiment with the American climate, sitting in the other hemisphere.
    2. +2
      3 June 2014 10: 41
      Hmm, it looks like a big tornado generator. It is enough to swirl the air flow slightly and the turbogenerators will simply be sucked out of such a convenient pipe.
      I hope that this option is calculated. And vortex generators without cyclopean structures already have a place to be.
  8. +3
    3 June 2014 09: 23
    Fallout, is that really you?
  9. +4
    3 June 2014 10: 31
    Fears have been expressed more than once about similar projects based on thermal convection that such a "heat gun" (and if there are dozens of them?) Could disrupt the movement of air jets from the high-altitude layers of the atmosphere, which will lead to unpredictable changes in the climate. for the first project. The second project requires a large amount of fresh water (of which there is so little), and therefore: 1) where to get it in the desert? 2) only distilled water can be sprayed so that there is no salt sediment on the evaporation surfaces, which means it must also be distilled, that is, waste energy, etc. 3) evaporating water, again, will change the climate in the area of ​​such a power plant, and unpredictably etc. In general, there are already more intelligent plans for the development of the energy sector, which envisage its division into industrial and for private use. That is, the existing power plants will supply their energy to large and medium-sized enterprises and a company with high and medium energy consumption, in this case, even the existing power generation capacities will be enough, even with excess. And it is necessary to develop, namely, small. individual energy, that is, for individual energy supply of houses, small farms and industries. And here there is a wide scope for various designs: from solar panels, heat pumps, wind turbines, etc. to small nuclear reactors or electric batteries based on nuclear fission, etc.
  10. +4
    3 June 2014 11: 40
    It is reported that a new nuclear power plant should appear in Georgia

    is there no state capital in tbilisi? wassat
  11. Voronbit
    +5
    3 June 2014 12: 29
    I read about a similar idea in the technique of youth, whether in young technique in the 70s
  12. 0
    3 June 2014 21: 26
    And how to do maintenance at such temperatures? At night? what if in the afternoon what happens? You can’t turn off the sun.
  13. +4
    3 June 2014 22: 01
    For example, I was surprised why the Australian company in Australia itself does not engage in such experiments, do not give money, or is it impossible by law?
    1. Nationalist
      +2
      4 June 2014 16: 15
      And you are right, I also visited this question, and as you know, in Australia there are enough of their deserts request
    2. +1
      11 June 2014 18: 14
      It’s much easier to do projects in the US than anywhere else
      nor was it in the world. Much less bureaucracy, easily organized
      financing and all logistics of the project.
      Therefore, almost half of the world's start-ups are in California and around.

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