Do solar towers make sense?

Cheaper, but uglier?

Even the most ardent fans of solar power acknowledge that the technology is still far from cost-effective. While some of these sun-powered advocates believe the high costs of solar power are recovered via environmental gains, such a belief is a hard sell to average Americans.

Solar towers offer a way to make solar power significantly less expensive than traditional solar power. In fact solar towers can be developed at a third of traditional solar power costs. Still, they require a tower twice as tall as the Empire State Building per 1.5 miles of 'solar canopy' to produce 200 megawatts of electricity.

Of course, perhaps such towers could be integrated into buildings surrounded by solar covered parking lots, for example. Still, too ugly or workable?

For more check out MSNBC and Enviromission.