Solar City Tower
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- 14 Responses
- abettertomorrow0
^Well, that may be true and all, but I want one.
Wheres the buy button on that site?
- monospaced0
- it would take an incredible amount of electricity to pump that much water, more than what a couple of solar panels would be capable ofaldebaran
- ofaldebaran
- that I understand, but he proposed primarily powering the olympic city with this, the pump was the exhaustmonospaced
- it's a lot more than a couple of solar panels, and the waterfall is intended only for "special occasions" anywaymonospaced
- Assuming it's about 700ft tall, and 200ft wide, there's 140,000 sqft of efficient solar panels...very powerfulmonospaced
- two sides ... hot Rio sun ... just sayin'monospaced
- monospaced0
that's rad
- hydro740
so.. using solar power to pump water up a wall so it could do the water fall thing... that is it? no other legit use to benefit anything besides being 'sexy' no other use than to waste water and money to clean it?
i'm sold.
- shutup hydro...inteliboy
- You have to read the copy on the site. It has a real purpose.monospaced
- ah see that. sounds interesting in theory. benefit vs Maintenance could be the issuehydro74
- akrok0
truth though, rio don't need it.
- akrok0
^
i say that cause they have this >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chr…)
and why would you build something that would over power it.- Because a 30 foot monument to Vicarious Redemption is in poor taste to anyone brave enough to think clearly about it.mikotondria3
- 20
hahahaha. that firm needs to hire an engineer or two to go over their proposals.
- aldebaran0
lol - ya i'm sure this get built
- 20
- LOL! Do want!Continuity
- David Thorne rip.monospaced
- Hahaha a rip? I linked directly from his site you ninny. Unless by rip you mean he's dead.2
- formed0
Seems very unlikely. I agree the energy to do that would be immense and without the water fall, it is a big slab sticking out of the ground. Maybe it'd be more interesting if the water wasn't the only thing to it (kinda a "one liner" as they called it in arch school).
BUT it could do something like this:
Which is small nozzles all over the thing that creates a fog-like effect. I was skeptical before it got built, but gotta say, it is pretty cool (and I'd imagine walking through the fog would be pretty amazing).
Those ones in NY are pretty cool, but just temp sculptures right?
- Without the waterfall it's a beautiful power plant, landmark and work of art! How do you not see this?monospaced
- The waterfall is a result of expendable energy generated, exhaust or byproduct if you will. Quite ingenious actuallymonospaced
- It is a big slab cantilevered out of the ground, hardly stunning sculpture. Take the water way and it looks like a vertical parking lot!formed
- parking lot!
Kidding, I'll hold off on final opinion until I see more renderings/info about the structure itselfformed - I see more renderings/info about the structure itself
(I so hate how these cut things off!!)formed
- 20
odds - see how the water is coming out from the top?
now, if the tank is full, the water will only be able to come out of the top for a brief period of time. then the water level will fall below that of the top of the waterfall. thus it needs to be pumped higher before it can cascade down. thus, you have to expend energy.
now, consider the volume of water in the mockup photos. how long would it take to empty a thin water tower at that rate of flow?
third. pump water up and then use a turbine to recapture some of the energy as it flows down is all very well. but consider the efficiency lost as the water runs down the outside. how much kinetic energy is lost to spray? to air resistance? hydroelectric turbines use closed water channels to run the water through. how will they capture the energy from a freeflowing waterfall? will they rechannel the water once it reaches ground level into a funneled conduit? what sort of efficiency would that be?
as an engineering graduate, the whole thing seems like 1) it would expend a lot more energy than it would generate. and 2) only be able to operate at full-strength for a very short time before emptying too much of its tanks for the waterfall to run.
so most of the time it would look like a big monolithic block with no water. the rest of the time it would be a very energy-expensive waterfall.
(yes i visited the link)
- i believe the phrase is, "oh snap!"?SteveJobs
- you might be an engineering graduate, but that thing probably generates a lot of energy from the sunmonospaced
- are you also an astrophysicist?monospaced
- mono, go sit downaldebaran
- lolmonospaced
- the site says it only pumps water with extra energy, and if it was continuous there would be a flow, right?monospaced
- ok, I see your pointmonospaced