Why not build these for power generation?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower

Answer 1

have you looked at the stats??

Alot of different reason why not to build it.

1. the conversion rate is terrible. 1kW/m^2 is terrible. you can get between 5-20% out of different solar technologies. Wind gets much better energy conversation than solar does.

2. look at the land use. it uses 38 km^2. and also uses a 1000 meter tower. Land is expensive, it's the most expensive resource known to man. Also with 1000 meter tower, you would have all kinds of airspace (planes, etc) rules to figure out. Not very cost effective. Plus conditions need are very specific where they can be places. So there are very few places these can be put effectively.

3.  Lastily, the performance of an updraft tower may be degraded by factors such as atmospheric winds, by drag induced by bracings used for supporting the chimney, and by reflection off the top of the greenhouse canopy.

4. How do you transfer the energy from very remote to very urban areas? they have to build all kinds of intrastructure to support that energy transfer, and no matter how hard you try you will lose some electricity over long runs.

So to sum it all up. It doesn't do a great job of converting sun to electricity, it uses way too much land for it's output. It needs very specific conditions for effective operations. Lastily, we do not have the technology/infrastructure to support moving that much power around.