If you read this blog religiously, which of course everyone should, you heard me discuss the use of a solar “chimney” designed to use a downdraft to push turbines.  The idea being: Spray water over the top opening of the chimney and the cold air generated by evaporation will drop to the bottom of the stack, creating a vacuum that will cause a downdraft.  This is a new and untested idea, but the solar chimney is not.

The “Solar Chimney” runs in reverse, a tall tower can be attached to a greenhouse like, heat sync, which would cause the heated air to rise in the stack producing an updraft thru the tall stack. Placing turbines at/near the bottom of the stack will generate electric power as the tower sucks the warmed air up the stack.  Also called a solar updraft tower, this technology has been tested.  The tower, built by Germany, in Spain was 195 meters high, with a stack with a diameter of 10 meters.  The collection greenhouse covered 11 acres and could generate a maximum of 50 kW, it ran from 1983 until 1989, when it was shutdown due to structural damage from the vortices caused by the updraft. 

Scientists today, envision a much larger tower that is capable of generating 40 MW of electricity, enough to power about 40,000 homes. Unfortunately, estimates for the cost of building such a plant, lead to estimates that range from an affordable 7 cents per Kw/hrs to an unacceptable rate of 35 cents per Kw/hrs.  Much of the cost can be attributed to the cost of land, glazing and labor needed to build a collector “greenhouse” that covers nearly 2 sq/miles.

While not a solar chimney, this updraft concept can, in theory use any heat source to cause the updraft.  This technology should be viable anywhere/anyplace/anytime that the ambient temperature is lower than the heat being sent up the chimney.  Whether this can be financially feasable, it seems quite straight forward from the standpoint of physics and civil engineering.

We’ve been talking about Germany and how it has become the leading user and manufacturers of solar power solutions.  A trip between Dusseldorf and Amsterdam, will show further demonstrate the adoption of wind power in germany too.  The strangest thing i found in germany, were incandescent light bulbs.  How can a country/people that are so on top of alternative energy still be willing to waste electricity and generate heat with a technology that hasn’t changed much since the 1890s.  I’m the first to admit that i hated the old style, glaring, flashy fluorescent bulbs of the 1970’s.  Who would sit and read a book under that kind of a light.  Today, i use compact fluorescent bulbs virtually everywhere.  They use significantly less power, give off less heat, and last 5 to 10 times longer than old bulbs.  You’d think every commercial property management company would have gone fluorescent, just wanting to save the extra labor of changing bulbs.

Mass Transit, what a concept!  Trains that go between various cities, trolleys and busses within the city, all running off electricty.  The US had trollies in most cities until the late 1940’s when the “transportion industry” destroyed it to sell gasoliine powered buses and automoblies. You can learn more about The Conspiracy to Destroy Mass Transit using that link or just searching for “GM” and “trolley”.  How much easier it is to deal with 1 power plant’s emissions than that of 50,000 autos.