By Allison Miller www.abc15.com
An Australian based company has plans to build a massive solar tower in La Paz County.
This massive structure from EnviroMission will be twice as tall as the Empire State building at 2,600 feet, making it the second tallest building in the world, just under the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to company officials.
It is being created to collect power from the sun, without any manpower and nearly no maintenance for 80 years. It will create enough for 150,000 homes with its 200 megawatt power generation capacity.
Here’s how it works:
It’s basically a huge solar tower. It collects the sun’s energy much like a greenhouse. The air is warmed under the greenhouse-like structure. Hot air rises, so once that air is warmed it will rise through the long tower in the center. There’s also turbines at the base that generate power as well from the natural updraft of the air.
Advantages:
It works with any kind of weather, day and night. Hot deserts are the best environment to work in, so unused desert land can be utilized. The tower requires very little maintenance. It will not emit any pollution.
Costs:
It is estimated it will cost EnviroMission $750 million to build. It’s expected to run at an efficiency of 60 percent. More info
