Energy Tower: Sucking Greenhouse Gases Into the Vortex

Science & Technology (alternative energy)

Belonging to the world of sci-fi (and the too-odd-to-make-this-shiz-up category) is the Energy Tower invention of Professor Dan Zaslavsky from the Technion in Israel. About a kilometer in height and nearly half as wide, is Zaslavsky’s tower which is based on the principle of convection. Zaslavsky proposes that this tower (pictured above) will be able to rid the world of greenhouses gases, and produce clean energy, and fresh water at the same time.

If built in a hot and dry climate, close to a body of water, the tower will trap warm air traveling above it, and as it comes into contact with the cool lining of the tower (cooled by water), the air will fall. As the air cools, it will drop into lower stations in the tower, and drive turbines that will produce electricity.

“It’s a radically simple idea. We could easily produce between 15 to 20 times the total electricity the world uses today,” he says, noting that this magic tower will not only produce power, but much more. “We can produce cheap desalinated water, we can irrigate the desert, we can produce bio-fuel, we can boost aquaculture.”

Sounds too good to be true? TreeHugger met with Zaslavsky at a conference last year, when he sent us the blueprints, and reams of pages, that spell out how it will work (email us if you want the deets.) And he definitely had the Mad Scientist aura about him.

But maybe it'll take a dose of madness to clean up greenhouse gas emissions. The Energy Tower (described here on Wiki) could also transform barren deserts to habitable places, Zaslavsky proposes.

We are a little worried about what will happen to the birds (will they get sucked in too?) and how the said tower will affect the local climate. But maybe an investor, looking to fund a wild idea, will develop a pilot plant to give it a test run?

Other TreeHugger related research from the Technion (Really Small Ways for Purifying Water); (My Beautiful Green Balloons).

::Green Prophet