Server Farms below Solar Chimneys could it work?

The chimney effect (stack effect) created by a Solar chimney tower of about 1000m high according to the Environ Mission website would be able to achieve wind speed of between 60-80Kph. With the aid of heat storing thermal ponds on the ground level around the pond this updraft effect could be sustained during the non-solar periods of the night.

I was wondering whether server farms could be incorporated in a subterranean level below these solar chimneys. Why because apart from the thermal pools and the foundation of the tower there is really nothing else that will be located at the underground level around the tower.

Well considering the fact computer server farms are such energy sapping infrastructure could it be possible to have them at a basement levels below the solar chimney? The cheap energy generated by this infrastructure could be used to efficiently run these server farms. Also probably the chimney effect air pressure difference could be used to naturally ventilate and cool the server farms.

Would it not be amazing to use of convection air currents to achieve a very sustainable and Eco-friendly way cooling server farms and at the same time generate clean energy.

Solar Chimney Project Update

The CEO of Environ Mission Roger Davey talks about new technologies that will reduce the height of the solar chimney project. These technologies include new materials that retain heat better and saline heat retention ponds etc.



This is the Environ Mission Solar Chimney Video.


Roger Davey's Interview by PESN.com can be listened to here.

African deserts a potential clean energy goldmine?

The technology of solar chimneys harnesses the power of solar radiation and thermal currents to generate Environmentally clean electricity.

The company pioneering this technology is Enviromission an Australian solar power company working together with a German Structural consulting engineer company called Schlaich Bergermann und Partner.

The Schlaich Bergermann und Partner website also says "...With solar chimneys the greatest problems of our times,the environmental exploitation and the poverty and population explosion in the Third World, could be solved immediately and peacefully. We have designed the solar chimney such that it can be built indigenous in countries with ample solar radiation. So it is effective in a double way with electricity and work instead of oil and coal. Besides investigating the solar chimney's principle and its thermodynamics we have optimized the construction methods for the glass roof and the high chimney as well as the appropriate turbines and generators – in collaboration with the worldwide best experts.."

Maybe African venture capitalists, investors and property developers could look at converting the Sahara and Kalahari deserts into vast solar energy farms and ecofriendly new cities.