Ian K said...
From the gizmag link
"
Then, raise that tower up so that it's hundreds of meters in the air - because for every hundred metres you go up from the surface, the ambient temperature drops by about 1 degree. The greater the temperature differential, the harder the tower sucks up that hot air at the bottom "
Hmmm? Making gains from the adiabatic lapse rate? If this is an example of how well they've thought it through then they might not get as much power as they think.
Might just be the person writing the article.
Sshhhh! Don't tell everyone or no one will cough up the $750 million.
It is a bit puzzling though because they claim it works at night time and I don't see how that can happen just on the basis of the adiabatic lapse rate and that seems to be the whole basis for their claim.
I came to the conclusion that the tricky bit is in the construction of the chimmney and they must use special compounds which shield the inside from the laws of physics and therefore there is no lapse rate inside the cylinder. That would do it.
And I think the technology is available because i've seen it on Docter Who.
The puzzling thing is that they had a demo plant running in Spain and I would imagine that one of the things they checked was if it worked at night.
Maybe I've missed something. Anyone got any ideas?
Or maybe they forgot to check that bit.
