Published 27 March 1999

Pipe dreams

From Peter Klatt

Someone really is dreaming
(“Electric dreams”, 6 March, p 30).
If we wait until we can build a 1-kilometre high chimney we will never get it off the
ground. For one thing, when was the last time you saw a cement kiln or glass
smelter in the desert—using what source of fuel, limestone, sodium
carbonate and reinforcing steel?

How about building a chimney with existing technology, say 500 metres
high—then firing a small amount of natural gas up the chimney to increase
the draft by an enormous amount? Or use off-peak electricity (from the chimney)
to make hydrogen and fire that at peak times to double the output of
electricity? Both options would attract investors.

Another idea might be to find a suitable mountain in the desert and run the
chimney as a duct up the side. This would save some of the huge costs and as yet
untested construction methods.

Griffith, New South Wales