Utilisation of solar updraft towers for electricity generation and improvement of air quality near closed landfills in Australia

This paper provides information on the basic operating principles of the Solar Updraft Towers, the history of the technology, an overview of the proposals for future development, and a cost analysis of projects of different scale. Since the Solar Updraft Towers are able to impel large gas volumes from lower to upper levels of the atmosphere, they can be used to reduce the environmental impact of uncontrolled emissions of harmful landfill gases to the neighbouring (often densely populated) areas. The paper provides an overview of the advantages of using the Solar Updraft Towers technology for this purpose and considers a mathematical model of the air flow dynamics inside a Solar Updraft Tower constructed over a closed landfill.