Hyperion Energy, Solar Tower Company, Plans To Bring Renewable Energy To Western Australia

From EarthTechling's Pete Danko:

The question might not be if an insanely tall solar updraft tower gets built, but whose insanely tall solar updraft tower gets built first. And where.

EnviroMission, the Australian company aiming to use the greenhouse effect and thermal dynamics to produce electricity in the Arizona desert, is apparently not alone in its ambition. Turns out another Australian concern is working to build a very similar power plant. The second team's project is targeted for the outback of Western Australia, where a key function would be to provide power to the extensive mining industry in the area.

Hyperion Energy's planned project was written up by local media in Perth, Australia, late last year, then was picked up in January on the Norway-based clean energy site Recharge, where we spotted it. At a glance it was clear the project is nearly the spittin' image of the EnviroMission tower we reported on several weeks ago. In fact, the pair have a common lineage: the German engineering firm Schlaich Bergermann.

Both projects plan to use a vast canopy to trap and heat air that would have nowhere to go but up through a tower at the center of the canopy. Thirty-two turbines would capture the energy of the air as it is sucked into the tower, producing up to 200 megawatts of power.

In a promotional video, Hyperion says "Schalich Bergermann will design the project, supervise the construction and equipment installation and then commision the operation to guarantee the tower's performance."

EnviroMission has a history with Schalich Bergermann, too. EnviroMission's executive director, Roger Davey, told Perth Now his company "acquired its initial engineering from Schlaich Bergermann, but spent 10 years refining the design to convince skeptical governments and financiers the idea made commercial sense."

Having failed to get the support it needed in Australia, EnviroMission set its sights on the U.S. In October 2010 it secured a power purchase agreement with the Southern California Public Power Authority. Last month, the company announced it had "received a formal commitment to provide the entire development and construction capital" from an unnamed financier, and was hopeful of moving ahead soon, subject to due diligence.

Back in Australia, Hyperion says it has purchased a 490-square-mile site about 430 miles up the Great Northern Highway from Perth. The site has all the attributes for a successful solar updraft tower, according to Hyperion: a great swath of flat land; copious amounts of solar radiation; low risk of earthquakes or cyclones; and proximity to major mines and transportation routes.

A bit of a wild card in the Hyperion project is the role of Dallas Dempster in the partnership driving the project. The Perth Now describe the 70-year-old Dempster as a "failed entrepreneur" who went bankrupt in 1997 in the aftermath of what's known Down Under as WA Inc, a business and political scandal that led to two Western Australian premiers going to prison.

Related Stories From EarthTechling:
Now That's One Hell Of A Solar Power Tower
Solar Updraft Tower Uses Sun, Wind To Generate Energy In Australia
Solar Puts A Shine On Dirty Tucson Power Plant
70 Percent Of Energy Needs Met Via Solar Power
U.S. Interior Secretary Touts Giant Gila Bend Solar Plant's Economic Impact

Comments

[cosmicdart]

04:45 PM on 03/04/2012

I don't see why this "Hyperion" wouldn't be able to supply electrical energy at night as well if its canopy contained heat storage crystals that would slowly give up their heat to the air after the Sun sets so that hot air continues to expand into a larger night heat gradient to turn electric turbines.

[Kenz300]

03:56 PM on 02/28/2012

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.

Bring on the energy from the sun...... The price of wind and solar have dropped by 50% in the last 5 years. The technology keeps getting more efficient every year with greater research and development.

[sunsetter]

08:02 AM on 02/25/2012

The energy alone required to create the vast arrays will be astounding. And all for something that operates 1/3 of the time. In order to have sun produce power, in any form, it will require 3 times the the area - 2/3 of the area is required for energy storage for the off hours. One small problem, no way to store the energy efficiently.

[Genders]

05:38 PM on 03/03/2012

No need to store energy. Backup wind and solar with waste bio char bio fuels using the existing fossil generators, but clean without the heavy metals from fossils.

Rooftop solar is far more efficient, and cost effective, Rooftop solar uses zero land.

With plug in hybrids charge during the day, rooftop solar can provide 60% of our energy needs.

[l monroe]

07:13 PM on 02/19/2012

bad design good idea. the tower needs to be almond green and the floor needs to be concave. I wish them the best. When I worked inside a tower I felt extreme winds when I opened the tower base.

[ThinkCreeps]

07:52 PM on 02/19/2012

No, bad idea too. Change the tower color? The color of the tower has nothing to do with it. The `silver' `floor' is a greenhouse roof. Tweak it here and there - maybe you'll get a factor of 0.3% conversion of solar energy into electricity instead of 0.2%.

You felt `extreme winds', but not extreme enough to blow you over. Here you have someone building a huge chimney and greenhouse, and getting about as much power density out as they would from an array car engines spaced out every 100m.

[l monroe]

08:11 PM on 02/19/2012

that is where you are wrong when I shut the door it was get out of the way or get something broken

[aligatorhardt]

04:54 PM on 02/16/2012

This seems to be a new way to harness the heat from the sun. The heat is there, we shall see how the technology works out. New ideas are coming out all the time. Good luck to them.

[ThinkCreeps]

07:03 PM on 02/16/2012

It's a rotten way to harness the heat from the sun. It only harnesses 1% as much of the heat of the sun as other ways to harness the heat of the sun.

[l monroe]

07:16 PM on 02/19/2012

It isn't heat they are attempting to use it is the first law of thermal dynamics. there is a thirty degree heat differential between the ground and thirty feet.

[rodjard]

01:56 AM on 02/15/2012

Sounds like a bunch of hot air to me.
Very good hot air.
This is a hew take on solar energy.
I am getting more ideas the more of these
new inovations that I see.
FAN--tastic, hah.

[professor]

01:06 AM on 02/15/2012

If nuclear industries were left without government subsidy, there wouldn't be any.

[sunsetter]

02:42 PM on 02/14/2012

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Energy Conversion Devices has filed Chapter 11. Another one bites the dust. Too funny.

[TomDi]

06:51 PM on 02/13/2012

And now for the real story:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-13/first-solar-to-vestas-wind-profit-crash-deters-new-ceos-energy.html

[l monroe]

07:27 PM on 02/19/2012

natural gas dropped from 14 to 4. solar energy panels dropping 50%. nobody wants to manage the business from bad days I volunteer, but I want a signing bonus and government subsidies like the Chinese manufacturers so I can dump on everyone else.

[TomDi]

08:58 PM on 02/19/2012

I monroe, talk to your legislator if you want subsidies. but the point of this article is that solar cannot stand on it's own either in the US or China because it sucks.

[Kenz300]

12:51 PM on 02/12/2012

The cost of solar energy has dropped by 50% in the last 5 years. I expect that price drop to continue. Remember when computers and LED TV's were very expensive? The price dropped every year until now they are cheap commodities. Economies of scale and advancing technology are kicking in making solar a good bet for the future. The price of oil, coal and nuclear keep rising while the price of wind and solar are dropping.

[WonderingNThinking]

12:32 AM on 02/15/2012

I would love to see solar integrated into all new construction (and energy efficient building) and affordable to most (a five year payback, perhaps) for retrofit. Big energy will fight this hard, but I don't care about big energy. I care about what's in the public's best interest.

[Kenz300]

12:01 PM on 02/18/2012

Solar roof shingles are currently being developed that are installed like regular roofing shingles only they have solar cells imbedded in them.

Soon windows will be sold that you can see thru but they have thin film solar imbedded.

If roof shingles and windows became part of our energy systems in new construction and remodeling alternative energy use would shoot up.

[Kenz300]

02:51 PM on 02/11/2012

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.

The disaster at Fukishima is not over yet. We need to learn from this mistake.

The disaster at Chernobyl is not over. A billion dollars is needed for a new containment structure 25 years after the event.

It is time to transition to safe, clean alternative energy.

[ThinkCreeps]

05:23 PM on 02/09/2012

It's a marginal idea, but if you getting a subsidy and land's dirt cheap, why not?

[Genders]

03:57 PM on 02/10/2012

Better than war, nukes or fossils.

[ThinkCreeps]

04:22 PM on 02/10/2012

Not necessarily - the testbeds seems to produce a few 10s of kW per hectare.

With something like 1kW per square meter coming from the sun, or 10MW per hectare that makes the efficiency about 0.2%, or about 100 times worse than solar PV panels or solar thermal collectors.

To match the 10TW power output of earth, you'd need a billion hectares of desert, which would be the entire Sahara.

It's a waste of time.