For 7 years between 1982 and 1989, Spain had a 195m high Solar Tower generating 50kW of renewable power at Manzanares, about 150 km south of Madrid. The project was designed by Professor J�rg Schlaich, a German structural engineer and successfully proved the concept while providing useful data for the optimisation of the design.

Enviromission (ASX:EVM) is gearing up to build a 200MW Solar Chimney in Buronga, NSW. When complete the structure will be just short of a 1km high, almost twice as high as the highest building in the world. The project is estimated to cost $342 million.

The principle of Enviromission’s Solar Tower is simple. A large greenhouse covering 13sqKm with a height of 2m at the permimeter to 5m at the centre heats the air. As hot air rises, it escapes up a 990m tower in the centre of the structure. Multiple pressure-staged wind turbogenerators mounted in the chimney convert this 50 km/h rush of hot air into electricity.

However unlike Solar Panels which can only produce power when the sun is shining, if heat absorbing materials are placed in the greenhouse they can later radiate heat during the night to get a renewable power source which is capable of supplying base loads.

» View an Artist Rendition of the Solar Tower - Large Download 6.7MB Windows Media Format.
» Beyond 2000 Video Clip on Solar Tower - Large Download 12.5MB Windows Media Format
» Preliminary Report Shows Power Station Gains - 29 October 2004
» New Technologies Identified to Improve Solar Tower Performance - 22 September 2004
» EnviroMission to Purchase Solar Tower Site - 1st July 2004
» Solar Tower Prefeasibility Success - Go Ahead Decision - 2nd February 2004
» Chinese join up as solar power dream aims high
» Ecos - Siphoning the Sun
» The Solar Chimney (PDF, 360KB) Schlaich Bergermann and Partner
» Solar Mission Technologies