1. Which configuration of air cooled condensors could give greater efficiency than sitting them in a horizontal 45 C desert air bath? In any set up of this kind the hot air is just dispersed.
2. Since cooling is an extraction of heat, could this low grade heat still be utilised to generate power?
Actually, yes, in principle hot air can drive a power station. This is the basis of the power tower. A very large area transparent shroud/ apron traps hot air under it as it is heated by the Sun, (the hot car analogy). The exit for the hot air is to rise up a colossal tower (chimney) at the centre. To do so it drives air turbines in the tower base. The result is a large solar convection cycle. (The air ingress is the gap around the periphery.) If this can be made to work then any additional source of heat under the shroud can only increase the circulation and efficiency. Arrays of aircoolers could be such additional sources. Commercial viability of the power tower has not yet been demonstrated as far as I know.
You might like to view a website: www.enviromission.com.au
I find the site somewhat frustrating reading as, other than saying that hot air rises, it explains very little. Their LETDF grant proposal for a 50 MW plant was unsuccessful. Did they justify it appropriately?
You are right that primary recovery is by water to water exchangers, but this is not the point here.
[As a primary schoolboy I placed propellors on wires above the living room lightglobes and watched them go around, .... and I'm still thinking about it!]
Juke
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