posted 12 years ago
Agreed.
Like I said, this may not be viable for home use. When I look at current solar towers, I see massive innefficiencies, or missing things that could be added for better performance and reduce cost.
For instance, why not put a trash inceneration facility near the tower and use the exhaust heat to heat the air in the tower, above the turbine? That would really get that tower sucking through the turbine, even after using the waste heat to run steam turbines. It would still be hotter than air trapped beneath the glass around the tower, right? Using a tower like that to tap the waste heat from several facilities around the tower might eliminate the need for miles and miles of land with glass or plastic above it, There are places with facilities near to one another right now that could power a tower, instead of just wasting the excess heat they produce, even after they use it for steam generation. Heck, the bottom half of the tower should be painted black to catch and use even more solar heat to help fuel the stack effect.
Anyway, it's just an idea or two, that's all.