Construction plans are underway for a solar tower facility in Arizona that would trump the height of Paris' Eiffel Tower – more than three times over.

Forbes reports a Phoenix subsidiary of Australian solar energy start-up EnviroMission has embarked on the environmental review process by filing the appropriate paperwork with the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee. EnviroMission Limited, the subsidiary, plans to build two towers that each would generate 200 megawatts of power.

Given the scale of the proposed towers, the environmental review might draw more scrutiny than would other more traditional solar projects. The two towers would encompass more than 10,000 acres of land but their location in Arizona has not been disclosed.

EnviroMission last month won approval to sell electricity from one of the two facilities to the Southern California Public Power Authority.

Under technology known as "solar updraft", the tower harnesses the sun's rays, heats large amounts of air contained in a collector zone, and raised the temperature beyond 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The generated heat would funnel strong drafts of hot air through wind turbines built alongside the tower.

Though the design permits 12 daily hours of full power operation, the engineering does not use water, which cooling solar plants' cooling systems typically use.