The Not-So-Crazy Plan to Build a Colossal Energy Skyscraper In Arizona

gizmodo.com

1 pointianlevesque3 comments

How much water does this thing use?

Where are they going to get the water? They have already over-allocated Colorado river water and are currently sucking the aquifers dry in the area (water that fell during the ice age).

Solve one problem, get another. But maybe there is a net gain... I don't know.

That town is only about 50 miles from the ocean. If they are going to spend that much to build a massive tower they can probably afford to build a pipeline through some empty desert and use sea water.

So they would need to build a pipeline through Mexico and then purify the water?

Because if they used raw sea water it would likely cause problems as the evaporated spray left salt. How much energy is it going to take to build that pipeline, pump water in and purify it?

It's a cool idea, don't get me wrong. I just wonder where the water is coming from. That whole area already doesn't have enough water.

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