Dan Zaslavsky’s Tower That Vacuums Up Greenhouse Gases

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Dec 19th, 2007 by Jack Reichert

Energy, we all need it for practically everything we do.

With global warming accelerating and fossil fuels expected to run out in decades, the hunt is on for alternative energy sources.

Professor Dan Zaslavsky from the Technion in Haifa has come up with a solution – the Energy Tower – which will not only reduce the costs of energy from our pockets but from our planet as well.

“It’s a radically simple idea. We could easily produce between 15 to 20 times the total electricity the world uses today,” he says.

Standing 1,000 yards tall and 400 across, Zaslavsky’s tower takes advantage of convection, the natural principle that warm air rises and cool air sinks. Placed in a hot dry place, with access to water, the tower sucks in hot air traveling above it and water lining the tower cools the hot air as it gets pulled down. (Cool air picks up speed as it goes down).

When this air reaches the bottom of the tower it is traveling at such a speed that it can power turbines at the tower’s base and create electricity. The water that comes out is cool and humid.

This design isn’t only capable of creating electricity it can do much more. With simple alterations Zaslavsky explains: “We can produce cheap desalinated water, we can irrigate the desert, we can produce bio-fuel, we can boost aquaculture.” It’s not surprising that the country, which made its deserts bloom, developed this idea.

Estimates predict that Zaslavsky’s looming tower could create electricity at 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than a third of the cost of electricity in Israel today.

We could put these towers in driest regions of the world. Sure it would mean figuring out how to get the water there, but because the process desalinates we don’t have to waste precious drinking water and the towers emit humid air instead of greenhouse gasses. In fact, it could drastically transform barren deserts to habitable places.

Cynical reports suggest that these towers are not practical because: “The technology requires a hot and arid climate, and at the same time access to large amounts of water… Most of these regions are remote and thinly populated, and would require power to be transported over long distances to where it is needed.”

They are overseeing the fact that it would make these places habitable.

::Wikipedia

Green Prophet related :: Israeli Scientists to Freeze Global Warming ::Go Green Quickly to Avert Energy Crisis

Tags: electricity, Technion

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5 Responses to “Dan Zaslavsky’s Tower That Vacuums Up Greenhouse Gases”

on 19 Dec 2007 at 11:39 am1TZ

Where would you propose such a thing would “live?” It looks massive…I wouldn’t want one in my back yard that’s for sure. And would it create more wind in the neighborhood? What about birds? Won’t they get sucked down into that giant monster. Seems preposterous to me…
on 19 Dec 2007 at 6:06 pm2rpophessagr

TZ, thanks for your comment!
I do not think that anyone wants ANY power plant in their backyard. The beauty of this Energy Tower is that it has the potential of converting entire inhabitable regions, in an environmentally friendly way, into a place that CAN be habitable.
The problems you raise can be dealt with, whether by placing trees around the tower’s base to break up the wind created, or placing nets so that birds do not fall victim to progress.
Did you know that 90% of the Earth’s population lives in 10% of the Earth’s landmass? Maybe that can be changed without harming our planet. Here is a possible solution…
on 22 Dec 2007 at 11:57 pm3Karin

Nice comment on the comment, Jack! You give me hope.
on 16 Jan 2008 at 4:46 am4Thawan Kesmala

Can I combine Energy Tower with Solar Chimney in a simple way exploiting chimney and reversed chimney effects?
on 02 Oct 2008 at 2:28 am5Derrick

How much will this project cost and how many are going to be put up.