March 2007

E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version

A giant solar tower, first proposed in Australia five years ago, may rise in the American Southwest: EnviroMission, the Australian company that launched an effort to build a one-kilometer tall solar updraft wind chimney (H&FCL Sept. 02) but has been stymied Down Under by various government policy flip-flops, is scouting Texas and Arizona for possible sites.

A rendering of EnviroMission’s original solar tower concept for Mildura.

EnviroMission has set up an office in Phoenix, AZ and is conducting feasibility studies in four counties: Ward and El Paso in Texas and La Paz and Mojave in Arizona. The plan is to build huge towers and surrounding collector areas, in effect high-tech greenhouses that trap solar radiation underneath which heats up the air that then rises in the big chimney upwards, driving large multi-MW-sized air turbines to generate up to 200 MW of electricity. The towers won’t be as tall as the original one-km, 200 MW version that had been planned for Mildura in New South Wales, but output would be the same or even more because of design improvements and incorporation of heat storage features that would permit the plant to run at night. EnviroMission CEO Roger Davey says a more favorable political climate in the United States, higher solar radiation levels and “very attractive power prices” prompted the company to look at America as well. If all goes according to plan, the company expects to break ground here in 2-3 years. EnviroMission hasn’t given up on its home turf either: In its initial round to accommodate Australian preferences, the big mega-tower plant was to be reduced in size while incorporating the design improvements for better performance, but that still wouldn’t fly. Next, the company proposed to build a 50 MW smaller demonstrator but that never came to fruition, essentially because of lack of government support due in part at least to a seeming preference for clean-coal power (Australia has huge coal deposits and is a big coal exporter). Now, EnviroMission is again working on a 200 MW version for the original Mildura location that incorporates the advanced, more compact and more efficient design features. Hopefully, it will get underway within 12-18 months or so.

Contact: EnviroMission Australia (media), Kim Forté +61 3 9693 5605/0414 690356; kforte@enviromission.com.au; www.enviromission.com.au