1/4/2003: New world's highest structure?

[Undertoad]

They want to build this thing in the Aussie desert, and if they do, it will be twice as high as the highest buildings in the world. They want to make it 1000 meters.

It's a solar tower. The round area at the base is massive and operates as a greenhouse-type thing: all it does is heat the air under the canopy of plastic panes. The air there will become hot - if it's 35 degrees C outside, it'll be 70 degrees C under the canopy.

The hot air will then seek to float up the tower, because it's cool at the top. The wind created by that air will be so strong that it will spin turbines at the base of the tower and generate 200MW of electricity. And because there's so much air movement, it'll generate that power 24 hours a day, unlike other solar methods.

Is it a good idea? I dunno. I have questions. What happens when all that desert heat is released a half mile into the sky? And isn't everything under the canopy basically dead? And isn't everything around the canopy basically endangered, since there will be a constant sucking wind moving towards the canopy?

This thing will generate roughly 1/50th of all the clean power Aus must generate under its Kyoto plans. Is that enough to justify all the upset it causes?

They want it to generate tourism, too. We shall see...