Official equivalent to free-energy invention.

[bugler]

Hi all.


this invention is not really free-energy in the sense of zero-point energy BUT it is really free energy. It produces energy 24x7x365.


I guess it will never get directly to the people but instead it will be reserved to corporations as happened with nanosolar solar panels (1/100 the weight, 1/10 the cost.).


http://www.gizmag.com/solar-wind-energy-downdraft-tower/32607/

[MarkE]

Wind turbines located in passes between higher and lower elevations get the same benefit without the giant tower.  That is why there are big wind farms in places like Banning, California.

[conradelektro]

It also works the other way around, updraft Tower:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower

In 1982, a small-scale experimental model of a solar draft tower was built in Manzanares, Ciudad Real, 150 km south of Madrid, Spain at 39°02′34.45″N 3°15′12.21″W. The power plant operated for approximately eight years. The tower's guy-wires were not protected against corrosion and failed due to rust and storm winds. The tower blew over and was decommissioned in 1989.

http://www.solaripedia.com/13/371/5043/solar_updraft_tower_glass_roof_manzanares_spain.html

In December 2010, a tower in Jinshawan in Inner Mongolia, China started operation, producing 200 kilowatts. The 1.38 billion RMB (USD 208 million) project was started in May 2009 and intends to cover 277 hectares (680 acres) and produce 27.5 MW by 2013. The greenhouse is expected to improve the climate by covering loose sand, restraining sandstorms.

http://www.gov.cn/english/2010-12/28/content_1773883.htm

Greetings, Conrad

[conradelektro]

At the moment there is no working updraft tower:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/04/140416-solar-updraft-towers-convert-hot-air-to-energy/

A Toppled Test in Spain:

So far, there has been only one long-term test of the technology. Back in 1982, with German government funding, SBP built and ran a small, experimental 50-kilowatt solar updraft plant in the south of Spain. It consisted of a 195-meter (640-foot) tower, fashioned from corrugated steel, and a canopy 244 meters (800 feet) in diameter.

And it worked like a charm. The pilot plant was designed as a temporary structure that would last just three years, but it kept running until 1989. By then, however, its steel guy cables had rusted, and it finally toppled in a strong windstorm. "But it gave us a great understanding of the thermodynamics that we could extrapolate for use on a larger plant," Bergermann said.


China:

There is a privately owned experimental 200-kilowatt station operating in Jinshawan, China, but Bergermann said the Chinese plant's tower is too short and its collector too small to work properly. Cottam, who has visited the station, says its designer made the mistake of using glass in metal frames for the collector, and many of them cracked and shattered in the heat. "It's a nightmare," Bergermann said dismissively.


Very high cost, attempt in Australia:

"The capital costs are very high," said Rudolf Bergermann, co-founder of Schlaich Bergermann and Partner (SBP), a German engineering firm. He should know. SBP is currently working with another Australian company, Hyperion Energy, to built a 200-megawatt plant in western Australia that would provide electricity to tin-mining operations there. It would have a 1-kilometer (.62-mile) tall chimney made from cement and steel, and a collector 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in diameter. And it would cost $1.67 billion to build.

That price tag is enough, Bergermann admitted, to put off potential investors for an industrial-size plant based on a technology that has not been tested widely. SBP and Hyperion are hoping for government funding, but Bergermann said he's not optimistic that public money will be forthcoming.

There is no point in building a smaller facility, according to Bergermann. A solar updraft plant "only makes sense on a large scale," Bergermann said, because the up-front costs are so high.

News:

http://www.solar-updraft-tower.com/de#news/index

Greetings, Conrad

[bugler]

This invention works with or without wind and with or without sun around the clock.


It's not zero point energy but it certainly can be considered as such.


So far, in my opinion, the best working (not suppresed) invention ever in electricity generation.