That\'s fantastic. This is the best green power source I\'ve seen yet.

\"it actually turns out to be remarkably good for growing vegetation under there\" At 194 degrees F, really?

The land is not useless for the dessert creatures that live there.

Build 50 of these in Australia\'s deserts and it\'d power all the houses we have :D
37.5 billion dollars should cover it. Get Bill Gates in here!

just hope the tower doesn\'t collapse as the wind comes along lol

I believe it\'s only super-hot (~194 degrees) closer toward to the tower. Further out to the edges of the canopy, or collector, it\'s not so hot. That means is could produce the right environment for crops.

Lets not beat around the bush... get it built and producing power ASAP.

If you were to add a combustion heat source at the bottom it would be able to continue to produce rated power in conditions of prolonged heavy cloud cover.
Adding a chilled water plant for remote air-conditioning would allow you to dump the waste heat under the glass, and driving the heat pump directly off the turbine would also greatly improve the efficiency.

Perhaps if the massive tower were built up the south side of a mountain, even if it was less efficient, the construction costs could be much less.

What do they do about sandstorms sand blasting the mirrors? Anybody know?