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. Ren ewables contribute 14% and nuclear some 6%. These roles will change as popu lation grows, energy demand rises, cheap oil and gas are depleted, global w arming effects continue rising and city pollution worsens the living condit ions. The development of new and renewable energy resources and devices wil l emerge more aggressively to address the world energy and environment situ ation. The helio-aero-gravity power concept consists of an air turbine-gene rator system in a chimney installed at the center of a carefully selected p iece of land where insolation is high. This land is covered by a transparen t canopy with a small opening at the periphery. As the sun heats the land u nder the canopy, it heats the air to raise and force it into the chimney wh ere it turns the rotor installed in the chimney, thus producing the electri cal power with the generator. Under reasonable conditions with an efficienc y 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 o f pollution is desired in big cities. The cold air at the top sinks with th e pollutant continuously, thus turning the rotor installed at the bottom of the chimney. The pros and cons of the concept will be discussed and detail s of the experimental plants and results, thus obtained, will be presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.