The Energy Tower: A Vision Ahead of Its Time Finds New Life

For decades, the Energy Tower by Dan Zaslavsky was one of the most audacious clean-energy ideas never built. And it was the first story we covered when Green Prophet was founded in 2007!

Conceived by Dr. Phillip Carlson and championed by Professor Dan Zaslavsky of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, the Energy Tower proposed something almost magical: spray seawater into the top of a giant desert tower, cool the hot air, let it plunge downward at high speed, and generate electricity through turbines at the base. The hotter and drier the desert, the better it would work. Zaslavsky envisioned towers over 1,000 metres tall rising from the Negev, Jordan Valley, and Red Sea region, generating power day and night while potentially producing fresh water.

The idea never made the leap from drawings and engineering studies to full-scale construction.

The UN advertised its potential in 2001 but noted then that the $20M USD cost to build it was limiting. But nearly two decades after most people stopped talking about it, the concept is quietly evolving in two unexpected places: China and Iran. The concept let dreamers dream and doers do – figuring out more pleasing designs and engineering.