This company is apparently planning to build a giant chimney with turbines to generate power from solar heating, in the Australian outback. I first came across the site years ago, and thought it seemed an intriguing idea, but haven’t heard much more of it. It won a Time magazine award in 2002 but then… well, nothing.
It seems they have been selling shares to raise capital and are conducting “site tests”, but what’s the Straight Dope? Is this a legit scheme?
I’ll bet the answer is “no”, as last I heard it would take more energy to build than it would generate over its proposed lifespan.
If you can provide cites, please do so at the earliest opportunity. These guys are currently selling the idea to the City of El Paso, Texas. The local newspaper is a big supporter.
I read the Australian press every day, and I have heard precisely squat about this idea since I saw it on the SDMB a couple of years ago. So my money is on ‘no’. They have enough controversy trying to open wind farms here, let alone this thing.
I’d agree with TLD. I remember seeing something about this project in The Age (a Melbourne-based newspaper) quite a while ago - possibly two years? But I’ve not seen any mentions anywhere since, so I’d also say it sounds like a “no”. Australia has quite a history of announcing grand, visionary projects such as this which subsequently vanish into the ether. Remember the Multi-Function Polis?
And the space station, the Very Fast Train…
IIRC it was in New Scientist, but I can’t log into the subscriber website right now due to a Java error there.
Being a municipality, I doubt El Paso would do anything without hiring an owner’s engineer to advise them.
My scepticism is at a level just marginally lower than TLD’s on this, but if you look at their website, they do seem to be financially active, right up to the present.
From looking at their website, their main order of business seems to be sucking money out of investors.
Why?
Nimby’s
IIRC the noise. But it could be something more significant, as I only heard that on A Current Affair.
A Current Affair only half as sensationalist as the Sunday Mail!
Well yes, that was exactly my thought on browsing through their news releases. Ah well, our collective cynicism will no doubt be punished when these grass-roots investors become “free energy” billionaires 
You would think that, but this is El Paso. I’ve lived there. It would not surprise me if they spent money on something that didn’t work.
This turbine system is a newer permutation of solar power tower technology, which has been around since the mid 70s. In the original version there were a field of mirrors reflecting and concentrating sunlight onto the apex of a tower, where steam could then be generated.
I recall a televised test on That’s Incredible (or some such similar program) where testers blasted a hole through thick plate steel in extremely short order, using sunlight concentrated this way.
The technology works, but to know whether it is efficient enough or cost effective enough, a few of those things have to be built and tested first. Hence the drive for investors.
Hm. I used to live in Lancaster, CA. The Tehachapis define the northern limit of the Antelope Valley, and wind turbines have been up there for a long time. The southern foothills of the Sierra Nevadas run north-and-south and the Tehachapis run east-and-west. This creates a natural venturi that makes it an ideal spot for wind turbines. (And an ideal spot for occasional 100+ knot winds blowing over Mojave!) I’ve also seen the wind turbines out by Palm Springs.
Now that you mention it, ISTR hearing about noise concerns when the turbines were being built. I also remember concerns that raptors (in particular) and other birds would be killed by the spinning blades. While the turbines are not completely silent, and while a few raptors have been killed by them, it seems these concerns are overblown.
Now, when I lived in the desert it wasn’t always a quiet place. When there was no wind (early mornings, usually) it was quiet except for those bloody ravens/crows that would wake me up whilst I was trying to sleep late on a weekend morning. When it’s still, the turbines aren’t turning. When it’s windy, the wind itself is making noise blowing over structures and natural features. I didn’t live near the ‘wind farms’, but based on the amount of noise the wind alone made, I can’t see that the turbines would be that much of a problem.
…the popsicle stick skyscraper, giant magnifying glass, esclator to nowhere… May have solved another mystery though.
Pardon this northern hemimsphere doper’s ignorance but what is a “Multi-Function Polis?”
Australians will whinge at anything.
“The little man starts flashing red before I can cross the road! This is an injustice! Call A Current Affair”
In the early 80s the Japanese had money burning a hole in their collective pocket. Someone came up with the idea of building a “city of the future” with it. Where did they know about lots of empty space? Australia. The state of South Australia was the most desperate, having essentially no local industry apart from building cars, which were being out-competed by the aforesaid Japanese anyway. So they designated a swamp about 50km out of Adelaide (state capital) as the MFP. It was to be the saviour of the state.
Numerous studies, tours, and reports later the Japanese were no longer so flush with cash, and the concept had been refined (ie scaled down) to being a mild investment in hi-tech industry in the city centre. The thing finally died the death in the 90s and is now a running joke in urban renewal circles, and a cautionary tale about government-led development. I don’t believe a single sod of earth was ever turned.