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From Yahoo news...
"MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The world's tallest man-made structure could soon be towering over the Australian outback as part of a plan to capitalize on the global push for greater use of renewable energy.
By 2006, Australian power company EnviroMission Ltd hopes to build a 1,000 m (3,300 feet) solar tower in southwest New South Wales state, a structure that would be more than twice the height of Malaysia's Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings. Currently, the world's tallest free-standing structure is the Canadian National Tower in Toronto at 553 meters.
The 200 megawatt solar tower, which will cost A$ 1 billion ($563 million) to build, will be of a similar width to a football field and will stand in the center of a massive glass roof spanning seven kilometers in diameter. Despite its size, the technology is simple -- the sun heats air under the glass roof, which slopes upwards from three meters at its outer perimeter to 25 meters at the tower base.
As the hot air rises, a powerful updraft is also created by the tower that allows air to be continually sucked through 32 turbines, which spin to generate power 24 hours a day. EnviroMission hopes to begin construction on the solar tower before the end of the year and be generating enough electricity to supply 200,000 homes around the beginning of 2006.
The company also hopes the project will save more than 700,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year that might otherwise have been emitted through coal or oil-fired power stations. The tower has received the support of the Australian and New South Wales governments, which have defined it as a project of national significance.
EnviroMission plans to build the tower in remote Buronga district in New South Wales. The district is near the border with Victoria state and is 25 km (15 miles) northeast of Mildura town. It will generate about 650 gigawatt hours (GWh) a year toward Australia's mandated renewable energy target, which requires electricity retailers to supply 9,500 GWh of renewable energy a year by 2010."
Sounds and looks pretty neat, AND probably visible from New Zealand!
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