Works at night. (Ground heat release.) Low maintenance, few moving parts, durable, doesn't require uncommon, imported elements or the same kind of energy inputted into its construction, doesn't make the ground under it useless. Politically this is easier to sell than relying on China for the arrays. Scaling photovolatics to the level needed to get to an all-day average of 200MW requires a lot more ongoing maintenance. This is easier for voters to understand, and looks 'cool' from the highway. :-)
Let's see, works at night with ground heat release...perhaps, but I am doubtful, their own drawing indicates a thermal gradient within the "chamber" caused by the "greenhouse effect," so any benefit of the ground thermal storage would seem to be quite low given the low rate of radiation as the required airflow cools the top layer and the thermal resistance of dirt is very high.
Low maintenance...perhaps, we'll let that slide for now.
Few moving parts...vs. photovoltaic? I think not since you can't go below zero in counts of physical items.
Durable...hmm, perhaps the materials are durable but I have no idea...they don't tell me what they are! I do know that the building I work in is all of 4 years old and has all kinds of leaks and problems...and it is tiny by comparison. This would be the largest area building ever built, by no small margin! The Dubai airport currently checks in as the biggest at not even 6% of this beast! So much for your low maintenance as well me thinks.
Doesn't require uncommon, imported elements or the same kind of energy inputted into its construction...how exactly are you going to move the materials to construct this monstrous structure there, let alone the over 2000 feet into the air? As for materials for construction, we have been producing solar cell materials for decades, it is essentially a commodity now and we don't have any idea what material they are going to build their tower out of do we?
Doesn't make the ground under it useless...this one made me laugh the most. How exactly is a 4 square mile greenhouse with untold winds at the core going to be used? Remember, the idea here is to raise the internal temperature significantly, so what are you going to do in there? Remember also that you can only access the land from the perimeter, and you can't put a lot of walls in there, they would disrupt the airflow. How is this useful land again vs. raised panel arrays that you could build any building you wanted underneath?
Politically this is easier to sell than relying on China for the arrays...okay, perhaps, and until a few days ago I could have said, oh really, but sadly they have announced that they had to turn to China for production as well.
Scaling photovolatics to the level needed to get to an all-day average of 200MW requires a lot more ongoing maintenance...huh? Why does maintenance go up with scale here? Add more panels to have peak production way past the current level of nearly 7x the production then! I already firmly believe their design will have a pittance the daytime production at night, so they won't be this magic, constant output station, just as panels aren't, you still need energy storage (again, I am not buying into the ground thermal storage) and you still don't have ANY moving parts!
This is easier for voters to understand, and looks 'cool' from the highway...I think you mean easier to fool voters into paying for, but yes, the coolness factor would certainly be there.
So of your ten points...I believe you only have two left standing, and both of those are pretty darn weak.