If the company, EnviroMission has its ways then it will be able to successfully complete its project of building the world’s first solar tower. This tower is the first large scale solar power generation device and this would be able to generate and supply a lot of power to households and companies. When completed, the solar tower will be able to produce 200 megawatts of electricity which will be able to power 200,000 homes. Hence 830,000 tons of greenhouse gas will not be released in the environment when the tower will be operational.
The idea of a solar tower came in mind in 1903 to Isidoro Cabanyes. He even published this idea in a science magazine called Electrical energy. In the year 1982, German Ministry of Investigation and Technology collaborated with Union Fenosa, a Swedish company to promote the design of the tower. This project has taken ideas from Isidoro’s theory and it is located 150 km from Madrid in the southern direction.
The medium scale model was built under the supervision of Jorg Schlaich, a German engineer. The prototype chimney has a height of 195 metres and a diameter of 10 metres. It has a maximum output 50 kW. The project was tested for 8 years but it faced some structural instability.
The project was decommissioned in the year 1989.
The design of the solar tower is optimized to use the sun’s radiation to heat a large body. The hot air rises through the chimney and the movement of hot air powers the turbines which then generates electricity. The concrete chimney will cover approximately one square kilometer at the base. The base will be surrounded by environmental friendly polymer, polycarbonate and glass. The tower has empty space in the middle just like the structure of a common chimney. The sun’s radiation is collected at the base of the tower and the air heated measures 35 degrees C greater than the surrounding temperature.
This heated body of air move upwards from the base at 15 metres per second. It comes in contact with the cold air at the top of the tower in the center of the canopy. The heated air mass forces air in the 32 large turbines which begin to move and generate electricity. The solar power station has the perfect conditions to cause the hot air to flow continuously through the turbines.