One hobbyhorse of mine since the beginning of the year 2008 is: The “Energy Towers Dan Zaslavsky”; as far as I know there’s still no prototype in the process of being erected … What a pity 😦 !
- Energy Towers
- Some more detailed papers about this technology:
If I get the message of those papers right, the “Energy Towers” can be problem solvers of a versatile kind; tackling the following problems:
- Rising energy demand and cost whilst a decrease of fuels takes place simultaneously
- Shortage of drinking water and potential wars thereof
- Overfishing of the seas; rising food demand
A technology with such a potential seems to be predestined for use in the current global situation …
Everyone is more than allowed to distribute those papers 🙂 ! So please spread the word about the “Energy Towers Dan Zaslavsky” 🙂 !
Hopefully this fascinating – and at the same time simple/not overly complicated – concept of ‘Energy Towers/Fallwind Powerhouses’ will be given a Fair Chance ! At least a full-blown prototype for testing this technology in practice should be erected soon !
And to all the consumers out there: Think of Your Electricity Bills … If this technology is thrown successfully into the energy mix, electricity prices should decrease considerably 🙂 !
Let me add the following: I am no energy expert at all; so qualified comments of experts are very much welcome 🙂 ! I am aware that there’s much (progress) going on in this field; so probably no approach can claim to be the ‘holy grail’ as of March 2009 …
Verlsnake's Allerlei 
I’ve done a little research on energy towers and it seems to me the main problem is how they are limited to a particular climate zone. In the U.S. it looks like they would only really work in a small portion of southern Califorrnia.
By: Jim on April 21, 2009
at 3:07 am
Hello Jim !
First of all: I cannot thank You enough for deflowering my blog 🙂 Because You have sent the first comment !
It is fully correct that those Energy Towers should be mainly erected in desert (like) climate zones; because in such zones there is enough hot air available automatically around the clock. The U.S. has at least some such zones, Germany hasn’t; but Europe has, too: E.g. parts of Spain, where sun powered powerhouses of other types are erected already.
The question now is: Is this to be seen as a problem ? I don’t think so … Think Global (in this case) – not to be mixed up with loving people abroad much more than the people near You … IMO it does make great sense to leverage each climate zone on our beautiful earth for what it’s best: Do agriculture in fertile zones; build Energy Towers in desert zones; combined perhaps with other goodies like fish farming … Since desert zones are increasing in many parts of the world, Energy Towers could be one approach to tackle this perceivedly negative development.
If electricity is generated in desert zones, one aspect more important than ever before will be: The transportation of the electricity; to my best knowledge the problem of transporting electricity over 1000’s of miles is solved already, too: Do it via DC, not AC (AC/DC was one favorite band of mine in the youth :-)).
Another impression of mine is: The development in the field of energy technology is really fast-paced … Comparable to the development in the field of information technology, which is my original hobbyhorse … Having so many alternatives one shouldn’t put all energy eggs into the Energy Tower basket; but at least one …
And here is last but not least the biggest obstacle for widespread erection of Energy Tower Technology: As far as I know not a single prototype has been funded and erected as of now; if this doesn’t change soon, the Energy Tower Technology could experience a similar fate than the TransRapid Technology (allows very safe transportation of people at very high speed on the ground): Available since decades, but not realized on a grand scale …
I am now looking forward to all further comments to come !
Tschüss and Cheers
Kai
By: verlsnake on April 21, 2009
at 11:38 am
We write February 2011; and there’s still no Energy Tower in sight …
My own newest insight: It doesn’t even take another prototype; the technology is mature enough to erect a fully working Energy Tower right away !
Prof. Dan Zaslavsky is still seeking committed investors ! Please take a look at his newest paper ‘InvestmentOpportunityEnergyTowers.pdf’: This is a short summary of the Energy Towers Project; and a Call For Investors ! If I were in a suitable investment position, I would probably commit myself to the Energy Towers Project !
NOTE: I’ve not only added Dan Zaslavsky’s most recent paper ‘InvestmentOpportunityEnergyTowers.pdf’ to the original blog post, but also fixed the existing links … Unfortunately, noone complained about those links to the papers not working properly for a longer time now …
By: verlsnake on February 11, 2011
at 7:47 pm