We think of the power we generate as coming from all these different kinds of sources. Oil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind… so varied! And yet they all fundamentally come down to moving a gas through a turbine to actually spin up a generator and make some juice. Even some solar plants worked this way, using the sun’s energy to heat water into steam to spin some blades and keep the lights on.
A solar updraft tower works along these basic principles, too, but in a rather unique configuration. It’s not since the dawn of the Industrial Age that humanity went around building lots of big chimneys, and if this technology makes good sense, we could be due again. Let’s find out how it works and if it’s worth all the bluster, or if it’s just a bunch of hot air.
You Spin Me Right Up, Baby, Right Up
The basic concept of a solar updraft tower. Credit: Cryonic07,Kilohn limahn. CC BY-SA 3.0
The concept of a solar updraft tower is relatively simple to understand. The idea is to create a large greenhouse-type structure surrounding a tall vertical chimney. As solar energy passes through the glass of the greenhouse, it heats the air inside as well as the floor and other contents. Since the greenhouse is, by and large, not completely open to the atmosphere, the heat cannot readily pass away by convection, and so the air within tends to become hotter than ambient temperature. That is, except for the chimney. As the air under the greenhouse grows warmer, it becomes less dense, and thus due to buoyancy forces, it wi ..
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