EnviroMission building massive solar tower in Arizona

[pvelectric]

good effort to get wall street banks and big oil horizontal-vertical-interlocki­ng directorates to buy him out and throw his pretty plans and models into the trash can.

[hornex20]

why do u need to make this so tall? isnt the turbines at the bottom?

[Hobott]

The price of the tower is $750 000 000 - almost a billion! When will it pay off??

[Zepherian]

Why not make a few smaller and cheaper towers? The overall concept seems sound but there seems to be a massive "look at my huge penis" effect on the psyche of the people organizing this venture... Again, why not just put solar panels on people's houses, let the people own the power? More centralization just breeds bigger ticks imho.

[Mohachedachamalamo]

fantastic! It's perfectly possible to power the whole planet by using renewable energy, and no doubt this will happen in the future. We shouldn't be paying money for energy anymore, since today the possibilities are endless and this planet belongs to all of us !

[AnonIonCannon]

OH I GOT SPURS THAT JINGLE JANGLE JINGLE

[BPLAYAH]

If I have learned anything from Fallout New Vegas, this could be the best thing or the worst thing that has ever happened to the world.

[zeproo]

Congratulations to this company. Lets get past this diabolic oil !

[Apvatar3000]

Chinese could probaby build this same solar tower with half the cost ! On the other hand,given the almost billion dollar cost-and just 150,000 households it will provide power with-isn't it bit little bang for 'your money'? wouldnt it be much reliable power if someone tunnelled all way through earths crust and into the inner mantle of earth-to get those "hot earth power"?

[bustermk2]

Typically another good Australian idea gone overseas because of little to no government support.

[JeremyNasmith]

Brilliant!!

[lcabosa]

nice tower, i envisioned a ocean city using this and otec in order to give us clean water, air conditioning and energy ,  keep the good work.

[namoroman666]

$750,000,000 is that right?

[dizzious]

@namoroman666 That isn't much for a non-polluting energy source which requires so little maintenance. The cost (paid by consumers) per kwh of electricity in June of 2011 was ~$0.15. This tower produces 200,000 kwh (200 megawatts) - at 15 cents per kwh, that means that this tower generates $30,000 worth of electricity for every hour that it operates. Assuming it only operates at peak output for 8hrs of the day, it could pay for itself in as little as 3 years. That's an incredibly fast ROI.

[Epicurtt]

good one australia, rather than investing in a carbon tax why are we not investing in this?

[karmaGfa]

Awesome !

[Joophish]

resource based economy?

[ArchSaur]

Is is going to suck in a lot of sand from all around?

[vmorgun]

So far in this field: USA vs Australia - 1:0 USA! USA! USA! Suck on that you ozzies!

[Jacksonstreet71]

Shame the Australian government is so beholden to the coal lobby. No vision at all!

[mephesh]

Hydro power works due to water being heavy, large volumes of moving water = huge amounts of energy. Air doesn't weigh much at all. It doesn't have the power producing force water does. So imagine a water fall of a similar size - I'd say it could power maybe 10 homes. Given this project is based on air I doubt it could power 1 home. Sure an upward draught will be produced but it won't be powerful enough to power anything substantial.

[Ride7Ride]

@mephesh

Hey mepheshgoon, is it possible the engineers have taken into account the weight of water and air and the velocity of convection currents? Water is heavy, air is light! Fire hot, fooood gooood!

Quit skipping class and do your math homework Beavis.

[Hirotoro4692]

@mephesh I'm sure these people, all experts in their fields, are investing $700,000,000 in this solar tower project because they don't know any better than one random guy on youtube. Which begs the question - why take you seriously? Exactly. We don't.

[Rustyshackleford08]

A thorium reactor is far better than this, this thing is HUGE and its not anywhere near as good as thorium. Its still better than anything that I have seen so far on the Solar front though.

[Rustyshackleford08]

@Rustyshackleford08

LOL

Yes it does, we can build them in Canada, they are called Candu reactors.

[currymuncher7]

Ashamed to be an Australian with such spineless politicians who base every decision on fluctuating polls, including sacking our own freaking prime minister. If they spent less time arguing like idiots in parliament or bullshitting the public, and more time providing support for schemes like this we'd be the envy of the world. All that wealth from mining boom and all they do is squander it on tax cuts instead of funding renewable energy projects of which we have SO MANY just begging for support.

[Jacksonstreet71]

@currymuncher7 fluctuating polls and pandering to the coal lobby!

[JeremyNasmith]

@currymuncher7 Canada should also take note!! We're in the same predicament!

[vmorgun]

This is GENIUS. Theres only a few moving parts and it can generate power at night. Also prototypes in Germany showed that grass, insects and other wild life was thriving under the cover that traps heat from the ground which was surprising.

[titus161]

Now if we poor our money into these projects, instead of wasting it on things we don't even need we might have a chance.

[darkknight072]

I salute them for doing this. THIS is what we should be spending our money on.

[phantom1045]

So there will be no power at night?

[Hirotoro4692]

@phantom1045 there will be power at night. this doesnt use solar panels, it uses heated air to turn turbines. the desert is still warm at night.

[pthompson2010]

I hate that it took "government incentives" to get this thing here in Arizona. I'd invest in this today if I had any cash. I heard shares of stock are only 3 cents.

[AkScoochy]

Environmental catastrophe machine will spew superheated point load of hot air into the stratosphere. This will damage weather patterns and prevent precipitation in the locale where it's built. STUPID.

[1ngac]

@MrStimpy77 hey man, every 100 meters! so its definitely not 30C.

[mephesh]

@MrStimpy77 One degree every one hundred meters

[Hirotoro4692]

@AkScoochy Either you're trolling, or you're a BLOODY IDIOT. The hot air in the tower should be no warmer than outside temperature when it reaches the top. Pay attention to the video, you clown.

[AkScoochy]

@Hirotoro4692 Clean up your snarky attitude, asshole.

[vtxphantom]

As long as I don't have to subsidize this monstrosity with my taxes. Try a thorium reactor instead. 

[jimmyxtc69]

non polluting passive energy source-that's why you should give a shit about it moron

[BlackSephir]

@jimmyxtc69

What does passive mean in this context?

[crompton33]

Who gives a shit? fuckin saddo's.

[mdany009]

Why am i a subscriber? I don`t give a shit about this.

[mdany009]

First!