Hope Solar Tower
Solar towers are among the more ambitious attempts being made to capture solar energy more effectively than through photovoltaic panels. The Australian company EnviroMission is currently commercializing solar-tower technology, originally conceptualized by the German structural engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann and Partner. The Hope solar tower operates by collecting the sun’s radiation to heat a large body of air under an expansive collector zone, which acts as a giant greenhouse. Based on the principle that heat rises, this air flows towards the center of the collector through electricitygenerating turbines and up and out of the tower, like a chimney. A single 200-megawatt solar tower is estimated to produce enough electricity to power approximately half a million households, preventing more than one million tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. To offset the drop in energy production once the sun sets, heat-retention systems can be incorporated to store heat during the daytime and release it at night to power the tower’s turbines.
Location: australia