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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Solar chimney to be built in Oz - large-scale renewable energysolution for the future
  • Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 02:30:33 -0800


Sunday, 5 January, 2003, 03:20 GMT
Australia plans world's tallest tower
An Australian power company is planning to build the world's tallest
structure - a solar tower - in the middle of the outback.

The project is part of a global campaign to encourage the use of more
renewable energy.

Enviromission says the tower, at a proposed height of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), will be more than twice the size of the world's current tallest freestanding building, the Canadian National Tower in Toronto.

The one billion Australian dollar (US $0.56 bn) project is being backed by the Australian Government, and is expected to be completed in 2006 in the remote Buronga district in New South Wales.

If successful, the structure could provide enough electricity for 200,000 homes. It will save more than 700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases which may otherwise have been emitted by coal- or oil-fired power stations.

Enviromission chief executive officer Roger Davey told Reuters news agency: "Initially people told me 'you're a dreamer', there's no way anything that high can be built, there's no way it can work".

"But now we have got to the point where it's not if it can be built, but when it
can be built."

Huge monolith

The proposed structure will have a width similar in size to a football field and will stand in the centre of a huge glass roof spanning 7km (4.3 miles).

The sun will heat the air under the glass roof, and as it rises an updraft will be created in the tower, allowing air to be sucked through 32 turbines.

The turbines will then spin, generating power 24 hours a day.

The tower was developed by German structural engineers Schlaich Bergerman, who built a 200-metre-high demonstration power plant in Manzanares, Spain, in 1982.

The tower proposal has received the support of the Australian and New South Wales governments, which have defined it as a project of national significance.

The authorities plan to fit the tower with high intensity obstacle lights to
prevent aircraft from crashing into it.

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More:

2003/01/05: BBC: Australia plans world's tallest tower
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/asia-pacific/2628361.stm

2002/08/19: New Scientist: Kilometre-tall power tower approved
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992688

2002/08/19: Guardian(UK): Real power from nothing but hot air -
Australia plans 1km-high convection tower to supply 200,000 houses
http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,776776,00.html

http://www.aie.org.au/pubs/enviromission.htm

Other Useful Solar Chimney courses/projects:

SB&P: Solar Chimney
http://www.sbp.de/solar/aufwind/pages_auf/enprocos.htm

U of Florida: Solar Chimney
http://www.me.ufl.edu/SOLAR/chimney.html

Structurae: Solar Chimney in Manzanares
http://www.structurae.de/en/structures/data/str03575.php


--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech




  • [permaculture] Solar chimney to be built in Oz - large-scale renewable energysolution for the future, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 03/02/2003

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