The world’s tallest buildings have always been built in the middle of big cities, where high property values force builders to go high. Currently the world’s tallest, the 553-meter tall CN Tower, is in Toronto, and the runner-up 452-meter tall Petronas Towers are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But by 2006, a tower nearly twice as tall as the CN Tower will rise over the Australian desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest city.

　　Instead of offices and tourists, however, the 1.000-meter tall Solar Tower will be filled with energy-enough power to provide electricity to 200,000 homes. Costing nearly US$600 million to build, the tower will sit at the center of a giant glass plate. Then sun heats the air under the plate, which then rises into the hollow tower, turning turbines and creating electricity before it’s released through the top. EnvirtMission, the company building the tower, hopes the tower can produce enough power to completely replace gas, coal or nuclear power for small and mid-sized cities.

　　“Initially people told me,‘You’re a dreamer, there’s no way anything that high can be built, there’s no way it can work,’”said the company’s CEO Roger Davey.”But now we have got to the point where it’s not‘if’it can be built, but‘when’it can be built.”

　　The site, in the middle of the Australian Outback, was chosen for its year-round sunshine, providing the tower with a constant, pollution-free energy source. And the project’s engineers have found a way for the tower to produce energy even at night: during the day, heat-collecting materials beneath the collector absorb heat and slowly release it after the sun has gone down, allowing the tower to generate electricity 24-hours a day.