Application of helio-aero-gravity concept in producing energy and suppressing pollution

Fossil fuels account for about 80% of the world's annual energy demand. Renewables contribute 14% and nuclear some 6%. These roles will change as population grows, energy demand rises, cheap oil and gas are depleted, global warming effects continue rising and city pollution worsens the living conditions. The development of new and renewable energy resources and devices will emerge more aggressively to address the world energy and environment situation. The helio-aero-gravity power concept consists of an air turbine-generator system in a chimney installed at the center of a carefully selected piece of land where insolation is high. This land is covered by a transparent canopy with a small opening at the periphery. As the sun heats the land under the canopy, it heats the air to raise and force it into the chimney where it turns the rotor installed in the chimney, thus producing the electrical power with the generator. Under reasonable conditions with an efficiency of 5%, the power, thus calculated, would be 50 MW per square kilometer of land. An estimated cost of the energy delivered by a plant of 100 MW would be less than l%/kWh of electricity. Conversely, the air flow can be forced downward by spraying water at the top of the chimney in case suppression of pollution is desired in big cities. The cold air at the top sinks with the pollutant continuously, thus turning the rotor installed at the bottom of the chimney. The pros and cons of the concept will be discussed and details of the experimental plants and results, thus obtained, will be presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.