As the thousands of participants from 173 countries at the Conference on Climate Change continue their deliberations in The Hague, plans have been finalized in the Israeli desert to develop a novel technology to produce renewable electric power from dry air. This new source of energy will yield large quantities of electricity at low costs without creating pollution. A pilot plant involving the construction of a giant energy tower in the Arava Desert over the next few years, will be a model for other regions in the world where conditions make such energy towers feasible. According to the development team at Sharav Sluices, which has developed the new technology, such towers could produce electricity for half a billion people in India at West European consumption levels and in over 40 countries where hot dry air may be harnessed as a non-depleting clean natural resource for the production of renewable electric. The proposal for this new technology was first put forward by Prof.Dan Zaslavsky of the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering at the Technion Israel's Institute of Tehcnology during the 1990's.
Salt water is to be piped to the top of the tower and sprayed into the hot dry air above it.
As the water evaporates it cools the air which then sinks quickly down the tower gaining speed as it descends and becoming a powerful wind force at the bottom of the tower. There it would generate electricity through wind powered turbines. This concept is similar to solar energy, however, it does not require costly solar collectors or turbines backed up by fuel to be constructed, and it is capable of producing electricity 24 hours a day. Only one tenth of the land area required for other types of solar energy is required for this energy tower. Israel's ministry of energy endorsed the project, which will produce power at a cost of 2.5 to 3.5 cents per Kwh.