EnviroMission

Who are EnviroMission?

Established in 2000 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: EVM) in 2001, Melbourne based EnviroMission Limited aims to build and lead the globe in Solar Tower technology. EnviroMission has a 100% owned US subsidiary, EnviroMission Inc., heading up Solar Tower development in Arizona. CEO and director of the company is Mr Roger Davey. Amongst his impressive and extensive business career he was a director of Australia’s largest stock broking firm, McIntosh Risk Management Ltd (now Merrill Lynch).

The company’s vision is to develop highly innovative and profitable large scale renewable energy projects for the Global energy market, specifically the United States, Australia and China. They state that a single Solar Tower will have the ability to provide energy to more than 100,000 American households.

The company that constructed the 160-story Dubai Burj Khalifa skyscraper will construct for EnviroMission the La Paz Solar Tower in Arizona, USA. (THe Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is the tallest building in the world standing at 2,717 feet. The La Paz Solar Tower will be 2d, and first in America).
It would have an observation deck and could withstand an 8.5-magnitude earthquake.

The facility is expected to offset more than one million tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.
The $750 million to $1 billion project is expected to go online in 2015.

MEDIA STORIES

Solar tower gains $110million in funding

La Paz Solar Tower project in Arizona

Solar Tower gains more backing

A solar tower for India

What is a Solar Tower?

An Australian concept attracting worldwide attention the Solar Tower is best described in this short documentary –Click Here

A Solar Tower is sometimes referred to as a “Solar Chimney” or “Solar Updraft Tower”. It is a Solar Thermal Power Plant that combines the use of a solar air collector (canopy) and a central updraft tower to generate a solar induced convective flow which drives 32 x 6.25MW pressure staged turbines to generate electricity.

A smaller pilot plant shown in my first picture, was built in Spain and had successfully operated for seven years between 1982 and 1989 and generated a constant 50kW of green energy.

When built, the solar tower will be the largest man-made structure on the planet. 

Clean, renewable energy

The result: enough clean, green electricity to power some 100,000 homes without producing a particle of pollution or a wisp of planet-warming gases. Unlike wind farms and traditional solar panels, which generate electricity only when the wind blows or the sun shines, the solar tower is designed to replace carbon-spewing power plants.

How it works

The Technology is made up of three components.

The Tower

The Tower is the thermal engine of the Solar Tower technology. In it, heat is transformed into mechanical energy. The updraft inside the tower, produced by the rising lighter, hot air, is essential for this. The greater the velocity of the Tower, the higher the column of air is and the stronger the updraft. Therefore, a high-capacity power plant should have the highest Tower possible.
The Canopy

The canopy converts a large percentage of the insulation into heat, which in turn, heats the air trapped under the canopy roof or is stored in the ground soil thermal storage system. One of the main objectives of the canopy is to lose as little heat as possible into the ambient.
The Turbines

The Turbines transform the energy from the heat and pressure of the air into mechanical energy and the generator converts it into electricity. They work like the well known Kaplan Turbines used in hydro-electric power plants.

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