EnviroMission Plans Massive Solar Updraft Towers for Arizona

inhabitat.com

6 points·wglb··7 comments

These towers are not very land-efficient compared to solar farms, but they are very cheap to build. So it seems strange to build them in the US instead of a large third-world nation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower#History

Getting the power to the US from a large third world nation is probably not as cheap as easy as building them in the US. There is also lots of land in Arizona that isn't useful for very many things.

I wasn't suggesting that we should route the power to the US from the third world. I was saying third-world nations should build these plants, and the US should build other kinds.

They're still a helluva lot more expensive than coal-powered plants, which is what the third world is actually building.

Which is where carbon-trading comes in. We give third-world nations extra money so they can build these instead of coal plants. They give us their carbon credit so we can continue to drive stretch Hummers. Win-win!

Except for the polar bears.

Well, Andy Grove thinks that won't work unless the third world country is in your continent: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07...

Very cool, both tech-wise and for Arizona (where I live, and more local jobs == a good thing).

I want to put solar panels on our roof (different tech, same motivations) and my wife is just about talked into it. Most things that help the local economy and help people be more self reliant are good things.

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