I see two insurmountable problems with this solar tower, in this age of rising environmental concerns and increasing influence of environmental pressure groups:

- The base of the tower covers a huge piece of land, which is now home to various desert creatures. Changing their habitat is unacceptable from the environmental protectionists' viewpoint. The precious creatures (probably some endangered species too) would probably die.

- Visual pollution. Nobody wants to have ugly structures in his backyard, let alone a half-a-mile-high tower which will be visible from a huge area. It detonates with the natural desert views of Arizona.

Because of these two reasons, this solar tower project will face years of litigation from environmental pressure groups, and in the end the project will probably stall.