I wasn't sure if this would be the correct place to post this, but I happened across this article on Keelynet and thought it was interesting.
Just a small blurb from the article then a link to it:
"There's an interesting little experiment happening on the Internet, sparked by an information technology guru in Saskachewan whose sole motivation is to help the planet. Robert Rohatensky came up with the idea of an "energy tower" -- a solar heat pump system for generating (baseload) electricity year round."
http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/22/3175740.html
Here's a link to the actual project website:
http://www.shpegs.org/