Any austrailians around who know more about the Enviromission Solar Tower Project?
Question:
I've been to the website, but i cannot find any updated information. Does anybody know if they are still on track? I've been a fan of solar towers for a LONG time, and i cant wait to see it pop out it's first megawatt.
Even better, are there any austrialians on AnswersRoom.com who actually work for this company?
Answer:
EnviroMission (ASX: EVM) is an Australian listed company. It has for some time proposed to build a solar updraft tower power generating station known as Solar Tower Buronga in western New South Wales at a site 25 km northeast of Mildura. More recently, 12 february 2007, enviromission also claims to be conducting feasibility studies to build a tower or towers in Texas, U.S.A.[1]
The originally-announced design was for a massive 1 kilometre high tower and 7 kilometre diameter collector area, producing 200 megawatts, costing around AU$900 million.
the scale of EnviroMission's plan has recently been downsized to a 50 MW tower with a height of 400 m and a cost of AU$250 million.[4] The design improvements include better materials for the greenhouse canopy that capture 10% more heat, and the use of external salt water ponds to allow for the storage and later release of heat energy to generate and sell electricity during times of the day when demand and price are highest.[5]
There is no combustion, so it would produce little, if any, carbon dioxide (CO2). It has been estimated that a 50 MW tower can reduce 490,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions from equivalent brown coal power stations. [6]
The solar updraft tower being proposed by Enviromission is expected to cost A$250 million (US$190 million) to construct,[7] and will service 50,000 homes. Assuming a financing cost of 7.5% then the associated electricity cost would be about A$7.50 (US$5.60) per household per week. This ignores cost factors such as maintenance, management, transmission, distribution and profit.
Enviromission has also proposed to incorporate thermal storage technology that allows for such a Solar Tower to better match both peak and shoulder electricity demand in a manner somewhat comparable with traditional coal fired power stations.
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