EnviroMission

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EnviroMission (ASX: EVM) is an Australian listed company. It proposes to build a solar updraft tower power generating station known as Solar Tower Buronga in western New South Wales at a site 25 km northeast of Mildura.

1 Solar Tower Buronga
2 Financial feasibility
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Solar Tower Buronga

The originally-announced design was for a massive 1 kilometre high tower and 7 kilometre diameter collector area, producing 200 megawatts, costing around AU$900 million.<ref>Solar Chimney: World First for Australia?</ref><ref>Ian Macfarlane, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources (2002-08-13). Renewable Energy Sector gets a Solar Powered Boost. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.</ref>

Claiming to have improved efficiencies<ref>"Green energy plan to use smaller solar tower", ABC, 2006-06-13. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.</ref>, the scale of EnviroMission's plan has recently been downsized to a 50 MW tower with a height of 400 m and a cost of AU$250 million.<ref>Scott Rochfort. "Enviromission seeks a handout", Sydney Morning Herald, John Fairfax Holdings, 2005-12-06. Retrieved on 2006-07-10.</ref> The design improvements include better materials for the greenhouse canopy that capture 10% more heat, and the use of external salt water ponds to allow for the storage and latter release of heat energy to generate and sell electricity during times of the day when demand and price are highest.<ref>James Fraser. "EnviroMission's Solar Tower Of Power", SeekingAlpha, Seeking Alpha Pty Ltd, 2006-08-03. Retrieved on 2006-10-31.</ref>

There is no combustion, so it would produce little, if any, carbon dioxide (CO₂). It has been estimated that a 50 MW tower can reduce 490,000 tonnes per year of CO₂ emissions from equivalent brown coal power stations. <ref>EnviroMission, Ltd.: Performance and Financial Projections. Waterville Investment Research. Retrieved on 2006-07-09.</ref>

[edit] Financial feasibility

The solar updraft tower being proposed by Enviromission is expected to cost A$250 million (US$190 million) to construct,<ref>{{Schlaich J, Bergermann R, Schiel W, Weinrebe G (2005). "Design of Commercial Solar Updraft Tower Systems—Utilization of Solar Induced Convective Flows for Power Generation" (PDF). Journal of Solar Energy Engineering 127 (1): 117-124. DOI:10.1115/1.1823493. }}</ref> and will service 50,000 homes. Assuming a financing cost of 7.5% then the associated electricity cost would be about A$7.50 (US$5.60) per household per week. This ignores cost factors such as maintenance, management, transmission, distribution and profit.

Enviromission has also proposed to incorporate thermal storage technology that allows for such a Solar Tower to better match both peak and shoulder electricity demand in a manner somewhat comparable with traditional coal fired power stations.